The Predator's Little Game
by Winged-Kitsune2
Summary: The original summary is too long to fit, it's on wattpad, but the gist of the story bases in the Naruto world, Naruto and Edward are kitsubasa and this is the sequel to "To Fix The Broken" and the prequel to "The Meaning Behind Karma", why I make the sequels before the origional is finished is beyond me. Warning for gore and cussing.
1. Chapter 1

Introduction

The very first thoughts that entered the unconscious young teen's mind was the inky darkness that completely surrounded him. He wasn't even sure if his eyes were open or not but that shouldn't matter to much, he was trained as a ninja and was supposed to be used to working in the shadows but he was a...special case. All throughout growing up he was told that sight was his families strongest area, it was what they had been famous for and his relations with them was what made him so special but he had never even thought of ever not being able to use his eyes, his ability. These were the only thoughts running through the boy's mind until whatever haze that had plagued it had lifted enough for him to actually start taking in his surroundings. He first started to move to see if he had any sort of restaurants on him, to his relief there weren't any on him and he started to wonder why he hadn't tried moving before but had more important things to do then try to figure out the reasoning behind his earlier actions. He slowly tried to stand and found it oddly difficult to do as his limbs trembled violently. He settled for sitting up as that alone was difficult and took what felt an hour, or was it really that long? When he thought about it, he had been laying there for way to long.  
He moved his hand over the ground cautiously for a little bit and felt either a dirt floor, or a wooden one coated in thick dust. His strength had returned quicker than it had been before and he soon found his limbs under his control and that they had stopped trembling. He carefully walked a few steps, the floor beneath him creaking loudly indicating that it was indeed a wooden floor. A wall, he needed to find a wall. There had to be one right? He took one step, and even in the odd inky darkness anyone in the room would be able to hear his every major move. He tried his best to be silent as he walked but no matter what he did, no matter how quit his actual steps were, the rickety floor board would always creak loud enough to show whoever his capture was of his current movements. He eventually found a wall and carefully felt the material to make up for his current blindness. It was wooden in some places, jagged in the areas surrounding the wood, and then almost smooth everywhere else. The smooth areas reminded him of wallpaper, and if he had to guess, the other areas must be were where it had peeled. An idea had finally struck him and he had to reframe from hitting himself for not thinking of it sooner, fire. He could easily use a fire jutsu to light up the room to find out where the door was. He formed the needed hand sign and quickly molded his chakra but found it sap away from him instantly and he fell back to the ground from both shock and a sudden lack of energy. The second his body connected with the floor, an empty eco resounded lowly throughout the long room. The boy realized just how large the room was, it echoed for an entire minute! It took him hours to find the wall, and now he had to search the entire room for a door? He stood up again and started walking with a bit more difficulty than what he could use just seconds. His footsteps echoed over the smooth tiles that covered it. Smooth tiles, not wood. At this realization, he reached his arm out and carefully found the smooth wall. It freaked him out how different the room suddenly became. After a few minutes of aimless walking the lights suddenly went on, blinding him. It hurt to see nothing but complete darkness and then go straight to bright light. It took him another hour before he could actually see what was around him, but the light was still unnaturally bright with no real source, no fires, no lightbulbs, it was almost as if it came directly from every surface he could see as a almost void like room. He looked down, but he had no shadow. There was only one source of color in his field of vision, a thick, minty blue line on the on the floor a few feet I front of him. He turned around, but saw nothing but a wall there which was also strange since he knew that he was nowhere near that wall, but closer to the center and a few yards further away. He then realized that the wall had been moving. When he realized this the wall seemed to respond by moving at a more noticeable pace and closing in. He started walking, a walk turning into a jog, and a jog turning into a full blown sprint. The wall had been getting faster, and faster, and faster, the other walls now closing in at a slower pace. Why was it so far away? How did the line seem so much farther now than a minute ago?! He didn't know why but something told him that the line meant safety, that he could still get out of this. He had managed to catch the line and instantly jumped over it with the intimidating walls all touching him from three sides and he closed his eyes quickly, when nothing happened, he opened them again to see that he was now in another room, the only light source being a single light bulb that dangled by a single wire in the narrow hallway that led to a dark wooden door. Walking to it and turning the golden handle, he found a small room with a screen, technology that not if this time and dimension, a desk, and a comfortable looking chair. Sitting in it he looked at what was in front of him. The desk was not the only thing there now, there was a small cabinet contraption there too with a minty green, glowing handle. Pulling it open he found a few thing inside that he still couldn't identify, a pair of speaker headphones being on top of everything else. Picking them up after it glowing that same shade, he held them up and went to place them on the desk, a desk that now had a keyboard resting on it with different letters, kanjis, on each button. The screen lit up suddenly and showed him instructions on what the item in his hands did and how to use them. After a few minutes of him doing nothing, the screen changed to a question.

" _Do you want to use the headphones? Click_ Y _for yes, and_ N _for no._ " Two keys lit up, waiting for an answer. He clicked the Y and figured out how to use them, he hadn't read the instructions after all. Once they were on the screen changed, telling him to click the start button when ready. He did, wanting to get it over with, and watched as the screen changed again. This time, however, there was a person maybe a little bit older than himself with long golden hair and eyes. The other boy had slits for pupils that gave him a slightly animalistic look and he wore a deep red sweatshirt. The most startling part of his appearance that caught his eye however, was the pair of ears that seemed to be both neko and kitsune.  
" _I will be with you today while you play the game._ " He said through the speakers " _but before we do anything like that, I need you to fill these out fro me ok?_ " The screen changed instantly to a few fill in the blank questions, the very first asking him of his name. The keys seemed to glow slightly in the darkened room, the letters showing clearly thanks to it. He tapped the screen where he guessed he was meant to put his name and a small, vertical line appeared that seemed to flicker slightly. He typed in "Uchiha Sasuke" before moving to the next question. It asked him of his age. The following thirty minutes was spent with the brunette answering questions of his most basic info, as well as some odd questions as well like his blood type. When that finally ended, the boy from before appeared again on the screen.

" _Alright, let's start, You are going to play a little game, Sasuke, and all you have to do is answer all of the questions truthfully and we will go from there, ok?_ " Sasuke glared at the boy as his courage seemed to reappear.

"Why should I answer your questions?! Where am I?! LET ME OUT!" He yelled and the other boy glared daggers at him.

" _Look, you don't want to be here, and I have work to do. So can you just suck it up and play the game?_ " He asked annoyed.

"What happens if I don't want to play your dumb game?!" Sasuke yelled at the screen and the other boy wrote something down on a paper Sasuke couldn't see and answered with ought looking up.

" _Then you will never leave this place alive._ " He said with ought flinching. Sasuke did flinch however, and rather violently too. " _Now if I can continue, I need to say the rules. Don,t try to run away during the game, do not refuse to answer any question, and most importantly; don't lie._ " Sasuke nodded his head since he realized that he didn't really have a choice anyway. " _Question one; where was your first school?"_ He asked

"The Academy in the Uchiha district _._ " Sasuke replied with ought much thought. The other boy looked at him for a moment before looking back down at his paper.

" _Were you of high standard of any kind during your time there_?" He asked

"Yes" Sasuke lied easily. In truth he sucked in his first academy since no one would ever practice with him much at home and he had been put in class younger then he was meant to. The other boy looked at Sasuke for a moment and suddenly glared at him.I

" _ **Don't lie.**_ " A demonic tone said through the speakers " _ **I can tell when you do**_." He added with the same tone. Sasuke felt a pressure on him and it was as if his very instincts were warning him of the unspoken threat, he nodded.

" **O** _k then, let's continue. Number three; were you a victim of any crime?_ " He looked at Sasuke expectantly, Sasuke nodded " _please specify._ " He prodded with slight interest and started writing again.

"Don't you already know?" 'Everybody knows about the Uchiha clan massacre.' The boy shook his head.

'Not everything revolves around you.' The other boy thought " _Sorry, but I'm not from..._ " a pause and a rustle of paper before he spoke again " _Konohamaru of the Land of Fire...weird name if you ask me..._ " he trailed off and received an impatient glare from his guest " _Hey don't look at me like that, I'm aloud to voice my opinion._ " He said in defense and raised his hands up jokingly to show he meant no harm. " _I've heard of weirder names_ " he added before reawakening his composure and turning more serious, and less friendly. " _Continue please._ " He readied to write again and waited.

"The Uchiha Masacre, I...I lost everyone that was important to me...AND IT'S ALL ITACHI'S FAULT!" Sasuke suddenly bellowed and the person behind the screen flinched at the ringing in his ears, having heard that yell clearly through the headphones had been quit painful, and glared at the Uchiha.

" _DON'T do that again please."_ He forced the please out with a little bit of venom in his voice. Sasuke paid him no mind as he continued his rant of that night.

"He killed them, he killed them all! He never gave them a chance to react! When I get my hands on him I swear to avenge them, my family!" He continued

" _Who is the one that removed your family? And of what matter of action?_ " He asked with a bored, annoyed tone.

"I already told you, it was Itahci!" Sasuke said through clenched teeth. The other boy gave him a blank stare

" _And I told you, I'm not from the same place as you, I don't know who Itachi is._ " He said calmly and Sasuke huffed with a sudden air of superiority. The other boy wrote something down.

"Itachi is...was my older brother. Every one always called him a prodigy but...look where he is, and look where I am. A dry chuckle, one that held no laughter, came from the Uchiha.

" _So his name was Itachi Uchiha?_ " The other boy asked and Sasuke nodded. The sound of some writing utensil was heard scratching the set face of a piece of paper before they continued.

" _Thank you, now on to the next question; Have you ever committed a crime of some sort?_ " Sasuke had to think of what he was to say next, he had left Konoha for Orochimaru and had attacked his fellow ninja, if it wasn't for Kakashi then he wouldn't' have been caught in the end but he was never punished for anything he had done after that. It wasn't,t a crime if there was no punishment, right?

"Never" Sasuke said and the other boy stared at him as if he was staring into his very soul and said one thing, his eyes switching colors slightly and pupils and eyes narrowed dangerously.

" _Lier_ " he said venomously and the screen went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Sasuke's Lost Trial

'1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-' Sasuke began counting again, from one to one-hundred, as he had been for hours. After a hundred was reached he made another scratch on the desk before him as he waited in the pitch black darkness, it was all he could do so as to not loose himself in the dark abyss he seemed to be in. Eventually the screen turned back on, and light returned instantly. Sasuke had been momentarily blinded once more and he tried to regain his composure, he didn't want to be left alone in the darkness again. In the light he could see just how many scratches where indented into the desk that still sat before him, covering the majority of the entire surface.

" _Let's just get this over with so that I can go, I do have more work to do you know._ " A familiar voice said and Sasuke felt a chill run up his spine for some unknown reason. " _Have you ever committed a crime against anyone else?_ " Sasuke nodded with ought thinking and the other boy seemed to lighten the KI that peeked into the room. " _What is the extent of your crime and or crimes?_ " Sasuke wasn't sure what exactly to say for a little while na the other person grew impatient. " _Let me try this again, have you done more serious crimes then one?_ " Sasuke thought of everything he had ever done and was forced to nod. " _Alright, now I want you to start listing them off alright?_ " Sasuke nodded again before continuing.

"I...on my very first real mission" the boy raised an eyebrow but Sasuke continued "we were guarding some bridge builder and were ambushed... one of them went after me so pushed my teammate in front of me..." the other boy's eyes widened for a moment before turning it into a glare as the Uchiha continued. "And when we were ambushed again and he came to help me I grabbed him and used him as a shield...he was hit with a lot of senbon...and I tried to feed him to a snake about a month ago..." Sasuke said and finally realized his mistakes, he was horrified by his past actions, and what he did just days ago made it worse somehow.

" _Anything else?_ " The boy asked after a series of writing.

"A few days ago I tried to leave the village but a team of ninja from my village tried to stop me so I fought back." Sasuke said and stopped himself from giving up to many details of the extent of the other's injuries.

" _What is the name of the person or people who you have harmed? The entire group that went after you._ " The boy said

"I don't know everyone that came after me but I do know a few of them by name. The leader of the squad was Nara Shikamaru, there was also Rock Lee,-" Sasuke continued with the list of everyone he had been told had gone after him and the other boy wrote through the entire ordeal. "-and Uzumaki Naruto." The writing stopped instantly at that name and the blonde looked at the Burnett with a slight look of shock.

" _What was the extent of the original injuries that Uzumaki Naruto attained from you?_ " He asked

"Almost all of them healed by the time he came back to Konoha, and he attacked me first." Sasuke said, trying to convince himself that his past actions were justified.

" _That doesn't answer my question though, does it?_ " The blonde demanded with a scoff

"No..." Sasuke replied, he was used to coming up with either a reason or an excuse and everyone would take his side or congratulate him on whatever it was he had done, always. This was a special case however, and this boy doesn't tolerate lies. "Umm..." he had to think of the battle in detail for a moment before continuing "...a few burn marks...a concussion, maybe some gashes on his left arm...and a huge hole in his chest...so a ruined lung where the whole is." He concluded before he added something before he could stop himself "dumb weakling could only land ONE scratch me, ha! It's no wonder Kakashi left him to take ME back instead of him!" When he finished he expected praise, clapping, or something, anything other then what he received. The other boy glared at him with eyes that promised pain, and then the pain came in the form of a painful electric shock that covered Sasuke's body for only a mere second, but it was only a mere second that was necessary for the boy's point to be made.

" _Unfortunately, you lost the game"_ the boy said with mock sympathy " _you played, and broke the rules, and then broke OUR LAW!_ " The boy was livid for a few moments, his hand hanging dangerously close to the button that would shock him, but he restrained himself. " _I knew there was something I didn't like about you_ , _but never did I think you had-rrr I wish I could be the one to say it._ " He forced himself to calm after giving a viscous growl. The screen changed again to the questions and on the top of the page it read 'survey' and bellow was a long lost of questions that seems to be common knowledge like recent events and National history. He began typing slowly, as he had no past experience with the technology, to try to finish it quick enough. Who knows? Maybe the boy would let him out once he was done. All he really knew for certain was that sitting here, alone, in the silence, and with ought any food, was better when he at least had light or else he knew he would go insane. 

The blonde teenage boy walked out of the dark room of one of his work places, everyone switches jobs every now and then after all, and groaned as he stretched his stiff muscles. He had the headphone set resting lazily around his neck with his notes and various other papers in a lone folder he held in his hand. He started walking to the various stations where he intended to go; first he needed to drop off his assessment, next he had to put in his recommendations or rather, the people who's names were mentioned during the ideal that might prove helpful, drop of his notes in his room over by the living lanes, and then he wanted to go eat something, work out, and then sleep after some hygiene enforcement. He reached a small door in a special room filled with various smaller doors that all looked the same to the untrained eye, a technique to help confuse anyone who managed to break in, and began to glow slightly. After a few seconds, he had shifted to a yellow, gold, red, and white creature that closely resembled a three tailed kitsune. The creature also showed similarities with the neko species, but also had a pair of wings on his back that showed his angle heritage. The creature held the folder beneath his wing and zoomed through the narrow passage way that had been designed specifically for whoever entered. He reached his first destination at some sort of small building built into some sort of stone, the same material that most everything had appeared as in the passage ways that there guests would never see. Grabbing his folder with his muzzle and taking out the proper paper to hand to the other creature, this one being an interesting shade of red with pink, orange, and purple colors on his four. He appeared to be some sort of wolf that was thick with muscle and four tails moving brashly behind him as he went to retrieve the paper so that he could pass it on to the next part of the chain. The first creature nodded and, after picking up his folder again with his muzzle, zoomed away in a blur as he expertly went through every twist and turn in the larger passageway. It was easier to get around here even with the other creatures in the way, seeing as how his breed came in slightly smaller than all of the rest. Well, maybe a little more than slightly, but if anyone were to ever mention his size, he tended to either bite them or have a rather loud rant. He made it to the other areas that he needed to go to soon enough and finally went to the sleeping area, they were called the 'living lanes' or the 'rooms' and sometimes some called them the 'sleeping counters' or 'the den'. This larger area has multiple names, but those are the most common ones. Found the part of the wall with his hole, it was small to conserve space seeing as how most of the creatures here could shape shift there size, and it was on off the highest ones there were thanks to his flying skills. He entered his hole and went to the very back, the actual hole was just the right size for him to squire in with a bit of elbow room and long enough for him to be fully extend, including his three long tails. At the end of the hole was a small door the same size of the hole's entrance with a symbol on it; a cross with a crown, wings, and a snake or serpent rapt around its lowest extent of itself. Behind the door was a much larger room with a closet, drawer, bathroom, a walk in closet, and other attached rooms. The inside of every room was much larger then it was on the outside so the owner of the hole could be as big, or small, as the desired and still be comfortable. He shifted again into his human form and fell face first onto the bed and fell asleep. 

A red headed woman was going through the papers that were delivered to her from the past day as she worked the night shift for now, and had been taking care of the papers for the last three hours. Her assigned job was to read and insert the information that had been gathered from the random routine games played here in on of the lower layers of the extensive maze they called a home. One paper had caught her eye however, it had originally been in an envelope and as a response to which she groaned annoyed, since whenever there was an envelope for one game it meant multiple papers, but it had only been three papers. The first one was the basic game information, the second had been composed of doodles, rants, and the word 'bored' being repeated over and over again. This paper gave her a snicker, and she mumbled something along the lines of "Sucks to be you" but the last page, it froze her cooled before she became enraged. The last paper said that there had been a serious attack on there leaders young vessel. This angered her for multiple reasons; one was that the paper said that no penalty had been placed on the guilty party, the second was that the attacker had been using a chakra cheat code as they called them, another was the fact that one of the newest recruits of her large family had been attacked, but the largest was that Konoha had betrayed her family, the Uzumaki, once again. The back up had spare entry just left the kit to die alone, cold, and scared. This paper was to go straight to there beloved leader herself, she would have to decide Konoha's fate after all, not her. Her job was to decide the future for the hairless ape that remained within there mists waiting to leave his confined room. She grabbed a three scrolls and one piece of paper and one ink pen. She preferred it to a pencil, especially when deciding one's fate. She started by taking out the smallest scroll and wrote to the accused.

"To Uchiha Sasuke,

Thank you for playing the game. Your fate has been decided that you shall die at the hands of one Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto. The date that this shall happen is yet to be decided. Your wish to restore your clan is a pointless dream as there are already plenty that flourish within our walls. Uchiha Itachi shall be brought in to play the game as requested by someone among our ranks. Your ambitions are fulfilled, you have no purpose of life left other than to further one other person and, depending on how you assist one of our youth, I will personally put on a good word to the Shinigami for you. You have broken our laws, the fragile treaty that has wavered between us and Konoha for years since the last Great Ninja War will most lily be discarded from this point further.

Signed,  
The Predators"

She finished writing in the small scroll and rolled it back up before putting a number on it to show the messenger where to go before putting it into one of the many pipes and watched it zoom down towards the desired destination. She then went back to her current office to write to three more respectable creatures.

"Dear Uzumaki Naruto,

It has come to our attention that you have been harmed by one Uchiha Sasuke, we learned this through a routine assessment game, and his fate has been chosen accordingly. The time of his death shall be whenever you decide. A request to remove the curse mark shall be sent to the sealing department promptly so as to not corrupt his chakra and his flavor. He is yours to do as you please. You have yet to truly devour human correct? You have never sapped another dry before? This is your chance to practice extracting that energy from someone. You can have him juiced, or harvested, or even stuffed if that is what you desire but the choice is yours to make. Ask Kurama-San when you want to do whatever you choose.

Signed,

Someone stuck behind a desk right now"

She had added a small joke as she didn't need to really say her name, her handwriting was a dead give away of whoever writes anything. There general species knows how to read as many languages as they could master and that includes being able to understand who wrote something, and sometimes what there emotion was when they wrote it. She set the scroll aside for the time being and began with the one on the last scroll.

"Dear Kuruma-San,

It has come to our attention that an age,put on the life of your own vessel has recently been made. The offender has been praised for said actions and it has been let slide by the people of Konoha but his future has been decided already and taken care of. The essence of this letter is to inform you of Konoha's break of contract with us.

From,  
The Predator Office Desk Station"

She rolled up the scroll with great care and sealed it shut with the stamp of her current work area. It was pinkish red wash that had what appeared to be a toothy, fanged grin with about nine teeth. She gingerly put that scroll in its pipe and watched in zoom upwards to on of the higher walking back to write one last letter.

"Dear Edward H. U. N. D. Elric,

You have a loooong full name you know that? Oh and your message has been received and stuff. I am also supposed to inform you that you can take leave also as you do the paper recycling. Have fun! Joking joking, I'm actually supposed to tell you that you didn't need to request to go anywhere as long as you're off duty. But seriously though, can you do the recycling? I heard that it was piling up so yeah,there's that.

From

None of your damn business "

She giggle at her joke before putting that paper in it's desired pipe and going back to finish the rest of the papers. 

Sasuke had finished the 'game' or whatever it was called when the door suddenly opened. It was a different hallway then there had been previously, and he was glad for that. He walked out and followed the white fluorescent hallway to a door. After walking inside the room the door closed shut and Sasuke heard the sound of a lock clicking. This place always gave him the creeps, he felt as if he had been here for days but he still just wasn't used to it. The way the rooms always seemed to just change...he knew that he would never get used to it. The room he was now in looked like whiter room or a one room apartment. A bed, small bathroom, a table, a coach, a kitchen filled with food wait...

'FOOD!' Sasuke mentally yelled as he made himself a large sandwich. He had finished eating when he heard the sound of a flame bursting suddenly behind him. He whipped around to see something that hadn't been there before. One his bed sat a scroll that had been sealed with a wax seal. The toothy smile grinned at him with killing intent that most objects didn't tend to have. He opened the scroll and read it before growing pale. It stated that he was to be killed by Konoha's number one knuckle headed ninja, and that the date was still pending. He sat on his bed in shock for the rest of the night. 

Many things had happened since Sasuke had gone missing four days ago, Naruto had originally been accused of his disappearance but the suspicion was turned away when they had found that Naruto had been in the hospital under constant watch not being allowed to leave until Tsunade herself decided he had fully healed. Sakura came in the day Sasuke went missing again to pound him into the ground for whatever he had done to her Sasuke-kun, Shikamaru stopped her seeing as he had been visiting all of the members of the rescue team about two times a day out of guilt for being the only one not harmed. He walked in after Sakura had sent a chakra infused lunch at the blonde who was sent off of the bed where he sat and onto the floor. Shikamaru had used shadow possession on her to remove her from the room. Naruto had apparently had a mild migraine beforehand which presented itself as a migraine after Sakura's little visit. After Naruto was back in bed, Shikamaru left while mumbling the word troublesome. Naruto had been let out of the hospital the day after and had found a small guest sleeping on his bed. A small pink messenger fox with a scroll in her holder. Naruto pet her before picking her up and setting her on his lap so that they could both use the bed at the same time, it was rather small, before reading it. He was shocked at first, but then an odd excitement settled in his stomach. He had a knowing hunger that refused to be quenched growing inside of him for the past few days now, would this make it go away? He wanted, no, needed to know. He gently shook the creature awake.

" **Ugh...five more minutes mommy**..." she mumbled and Naruto snickered before making his best mother voice

"But then you'll be late for school!" He whispered jokingly, yet loud enough to show the urgency. She opened her eyes after realizing that the voice wasn't her mom's before blushing nervously. Naruto continued "But seriously though, I have some questions." She nodded and he showed her the paper that rested in his hands "if I were to do this, would it stop this weird hunger?" She looked at him in a confused manner since she was a teacup kitsune and was from an entirely different branch and bread of the shared species.

" **I...I** do **n** 't k **now, maybe?** Why don't you try it **and** then find out?" She suggested, she herself wasn't sure what the boy actually meant but wasn't going to leave the boy with ought any assistance. He nodded and she zoomed away through his open window. He decided to head over to what he called his true home so that he could test something.

Author's note; did you know that if you write to much in one chappy about a thousand words delete themselves? I didn't, so I'm going to have to cut this chappy in half so I don't have to redo stuff again.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto's Decision

Naruto went into the main part of the burrow, one mile away from the highest layer and was much wider then most of the other tunnels and passageways. This area was directly connected to most of the other main areas and was the fastest way to get to your destination inside of the large maze like burrow. He was walking through when he heard a low ringing that made his eye drums vibrate softly. The sound was part of the alarm system that had been set up to warn the borrow's occupants of anything they might want to know. This one in particular was meant to let those who didn't want to see blood to avoid the area where the sound was loudest or most noticeable. He followed the sound with interest, it might help solve his problem if he knew if he could stand looking at the gory hunt that tended to happen every now and then until finding an area that had been crowded slightly with many creatures around one of the buildings built into the wall and extended slightly outwards with would and some other kind of rock that was lighter then the walls. This was one of the buildings that specialized in harvesting the edible parts of the prey's body for the one who submits them. Naruto shifted into one of his other forms so that he could get through the crowd easier, he wasn't the only one that wanted to see, and his eyes widened at what he saw. A white mountain lion/lynx hybrid with black freckles running over his back and tail had a full grown human adult strapped to a male table with his stomach ripped opened from a fatal bite. The person's face had been bitten off and the person had been mangled to the point of being able to tell who they ever were, Naruto couldn't even say if it was a girl or boy but he could say one thing; he had made his decision.

Once open a time, any time in any plane of existence, there is a simple, innocent game.

A man walked through the darkened streets of Konoha alone, the only thing lighting the streets were the oil lamps sitting on the slightly unkept houses of the in between of the red light district and the orange light district.

The game in itself is normally harmless, it's if you break the rules that you need to be worried.

The oil light lamps began going out one, by one, leaving the lone man in the darkness of the night.

You may have heard of this game through the whispers on the streets,

The man payed the darkness no mind, to stuck in his own world to notice or care as he went to his apartment.

But these whispers are nothing but gossip,

The man had arrived at his apartment building and began walking towards the third flour.

And gossip is cheap.

The man made it up the first flight of stairs as the lights continued to all turn off with the sound of a click.

What is true is to beware of anyone claiming to have played the game and won,

The man made his way up the second flight of stairs, still absorbed in his own private thoughts.

For they are liars who undo the binds of society that have been so precisely set by the predators that hide in the shadows,

The man finally made it to his door and fished in his pocket for the key and brought them out before dropping them in the darkness.

To them, you are nothing but a loose end,

The man found his keys in the darkness that he finally took notice of and felt an odd chill run up his spin, he could still see his door and the ground fine but everything else was covered in an odd pitch black darkness that seemed to make the rest of the world disappear, maybe it had.

Meant to be fixed, or cut off if necessary.

He quickly entered his apartment as an unsettling fear set in. It was as if he was being hunted by something. The sound of feral growling that was accompanied by child like giggling sounded and echoed inside of the small apartment, steadily growing louder as it bounced off of the enclosed area of the apartment.

If you ever find yourself in there sights, do not hide

The sound had grown louder and louder as hungry eyes watched the man from the shadows with a small giggle of insanity.

They will find you,

The figure began making his stalked towards the man from the shadows silently, the only sounds the figure made was giggles and a strange, inhuman growl.

They will kill you,

The figure struck, the man's blood staining the walls instantly as he screamed his heart out to try and call help, but his screams were nonexistent to the outside world as it bounced off of the walls of the one place everyone has a right to feel safest; their home. The still unseen figure no longer hiding in the shadows behind him had ripped out his windpipe and had razor sharp claws or knives of some sort digging into his gut. It almost felt like the person had been hugging him from behind. The smaller person's blonde hair tickled the man's face slightly as he crushed the man's neck with a vicious bite and it almost sounded as if the person had been slurping his blood down. If he was, the person was enjoying it if the greedy sound of munching, slurping, and ripping was anything to go by, the person, or whatever they were, was eating him alive with no mercy.

There is no where to hide,

The man drowned from his own blood as it grew difficult to breath with his wind pipe destroyed and blood flooded his lungs as it slid down the pipe.

We are always watching you,

The man finally died as his heart finally slowed to a stop and he heard one thing before his soul left him, though it sounded as if from both under water and through a tunnel.

"Please don't take this personally...everyone's gotta eat right?" The voice of someone that couldn't be any older then fifteen echoed "the thing is that I honestly don't know if this will help but...it's better try and fail than not try and go on never knowing-" the boy continued, but this was all that the man had heard before slipping into an eternal sleep, never to wake again. "- but...for the first time that I ever killed someone..." an insane grin split Naruto's face as he licked his hand free of blood, letting the warm corpse fall to the floor "...I'm taking it pretty well, hehehehehehehe" Naruto went into a crazed laugh "thi **s wa** s fun. I think that I will do it again sometime." And with that, he went to work in putting everything that looked tasty into a sealing scroll he had hid in the corner of the dark room. He wasn't sure what parts he was supposed to keep but he knew some of them so he started ripping the skin of the limbs to get to the pinkish red meat underneath before ripping it off, having to claw at various points to really remove it. He repeated the process to the other limbs before setting the meat aside before moving to the chest. He began clawing at the jacket and shirt covering his upper body before letting loose and shredding the skin and fat that had been over the muscle there, he even decided to dip out a few ribs to try something out later before ripping open the stomach and carelessly removing the origins before carefully setting them aside. He left the stomach for last and looked at it, it was said that the stomached was the center point of the chakra system after all, and he let go of his sanity as he began terming at the remaining muscle, origins, and other body parts that looked interesting or tasty. By the time Naruto regained his sanity he had been drenched in the red shade of blood from head to toe and for the first time in days Naruto had been full.


	4. Chapter 4

Cleanup and Investigations

Naruto looked around himself and cleaned up the parts that he had left for later before loosing himself and began sealing the parts in his scroll, which had a decent amount of blood on the inside of the white paper. He decided to make used of the dead man's apartment, he wouldn't mind after all, to get himself cleaned up and wash his clothes. He threw his clothing into the man's washer and went into his bathroom to take a long hot show, his own at the apartment didn't have heat so he wanted to make it last and enjoy it.

Two hours later Naruto walked out of the dead man's apartment cleaner and much more relaxed than he had before, he was able to vent all of his stress on his first hunt and then took a very relaxing shower and bath, better safe ten sorry with how dirty he had been, completely covered in blood before, and his clothes looked nicer too. His orange, blue, and white jacket was nice and warm on the inside after the drying machine though it took a little while to figure out how to use it. Either way it didn't matter, he had an amazing night and didn't want to ruin it by going back to his shabby place so he went home to the burrow and went into his room before falling into one of the most restful night's sleep he had in a long time.

A woman walked through the streets, her agitation radiating off of her like heat, as she made her way to her employ's apartment. He hadn't showed up that morning at the shop and had skipped work that day but the woman would make sure that he payed for his action fully. She made it up the stairs and to his room, banging on the door hard, the door swung open as if it had never been closed. A smell instantly hit her nose that made her gag and she covered her mouth and nose to try and block the stench. Light fell through the open door and into the once tidy apartment, showing her the remains of the man she had just moments ago wanted to chew out. The face was still intact, but almost nothing else was. The skin on all of his limbs had been ripped open and she could see his bones, his that had not only been cut but almost completely removed yet still it managed to connect his head to his bodies remains. His shirt had been turn through and his stomach and chest reflected onto his arms and legs, the floor was splattered with his blood with some areas left almost bare. The woman leaned on the door before turning around and running as fast as she could, only stopping when she had found a man with a hiate, showing that he was a ninja and hence forth the authority in the situation. He had silver hair that seemed to defy gravity and had been reading a small book from his hand, next to him were two other ninja, one wearing a green one piece jumpsuit, the other wearing mostly normal ninja attire. She bent over, out of breath and out of shape, while trying to catch her breath to speak to them and tell them of the horror she had just witnessed. They stood there, waiting for her to speak. When she finally caught her breath enough to talk she sounded as if she was blabbering random nonsense.

"Wow wow wow, calm down. Take a deep breath and get your thoughts in order alright? We aren't going anywhere." The very first one said.

"Th-there's been a murder!" She yelled quickly and their eyes widened

"Where?" The last one asked while the one in green ran off to tell the hokage in neck breaking speeds. She showed the. Where it was and soon the hokage, her apprentice, and a man with a long pale blonde ponytail soon appeared with the green dressed ninja from before.

"Do you have any idea of what happened?" Inoichi asked and the woman shook her head.

"I j-just ca-me to get him since he never showe-d up at work today. He works at my bakery as the cashier so after the busy hour ended I came to get him...and I-I found this." She stammered, still not truly believing this could happen. You never really think of anything truly bad ever happening to you, you might here of it happening to others, but never to you. Tsunade looked at Asuma and he escorted the frightened woman away from the bloody mess and the room. Tsunade then turned to Kakashi and Gai.

"Go get Shikaku Nara, Anko, and Ibiki and then leave, this is out of your hands now." She said and the two left instantly to follow their orders. The requested people showed up, and yellow police tape was put up around the area. Anko looked at the area, her normally silly attitude replaced with a serious, calculating one. She carefully walked over the now dry blood and stood in front of where the man had fallen.

"Do you see it?" She suddenly asked to no one in particular

"See what?" Inoichi asked, Anko pointed to the throat wound

"The edges of the wound are jagged but smooth, it looks almost like a bite mark. Multiple bite marks, but still bite marks." She said before pointing to another part of the destroyed throat. "And this guy must have some sort of strong jaw or something, they literally ripped out the wind pipe and it's nowhere to be seen." She finished

"Neither are the other internal organs." Ibiki said while pointing at the hole where the guts where meant to be. Inoichi nodded in agreement.

"They must have had some sort of weapon or something, the gashes in the arms and legs look almost like some sort of cut. Granted, multiple cuts, and it looks like they were all done at the same time, or at least a large amount were done at once. They go as deep and long as each other, what I don't get is why these marks are made, what did this man do, and what had the person who did it, do with the parts he took." Inoichi said and Anko looked slightly sick as she realized something.

"What if...what if they were eating him?" She asked and she was given strange looks.

"I'm sorry?" Ibiki asked, not believing what his friend and coworker said. She pointed to an area on the neck where the gapping wound began.

"A knife couldn't make this kind of wound, it looks like the kind of rip you see on the leftover carcass of a hunt, you see it all the time in the forest of death." She said

"But then the door would have been forced open or the windows would be broken. There is no forced entry at all in any part of the house. The only way for any of that to be possible is if it was a person and last time I checked, people don't eat other people." Shikaku said while looking at the closest window for any damage he missed.

"I know that MOST people don't but this guy does." Anko retorted, Shizune took a closer look at the body.

"All of the removed body parts are no where to be seen, that means that, if the person was in fact committing cannibalism, then they either ate everything they took, or somehow managed to carry all of the things they took but people would have noticed it if someone were to go out carrying a huge pile of bloody meat and origins." Shizune said back. They all continued to argue and investigate but there job wasn't to investigate, they were analysts and torturers, this wasn't there area of operation and none of them had seen anything quite like this.

Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji walked through the streets of Konoha to go to some sort of multi-team-meeting. It was only a few hours ago when the meeting was called, something urgent that the hokage needed them all to do. They met in the hokage's office, team Kakashi was late and so was his team, he probably hadn't told them of the meeting yet or something. Tsunade sent Asuma out to go get them to make them come before they had to wait an hour or two before actually starting anything. Asuma grabbed his team and brought them with him before heading to the area he knew them to train in almost everyday. When he got there, no one was at the actual training spot. Ino's Sasuke meter pointed them into the direction of a red bridge where team 7 waited for there sensei. Shikamaru and Choji waved towards them, Naruto waved back. Something about him was off, he was acting less goofy and more childish in a way and he practically glowed, his eyes were squinted like he did whenever he smiled or was confused but now they were just closed the entire time. Just because his eyes were closed, didn't mean that he couldn't see. Naruto jumped from his spot and landed hereby them, he had jumped from practically half of the bridge and had been on the other side before jumping and was now standing a little bit in front of them, he opened his eyes the second he landed on the ground and they practically glowed with enthusiasm.

"Hey guys! Shika, Choji, Ino, how've ya been?!" He practically yelled happily, not taking notice in Asuma's presence. Ino looked at Naruto strangely before turning to Sakura for an explanation, Choji also looked at him strangely.

"Uhh...not much? We came here to-" Choji began but was interrupted by Sakura

"NARUTO YOU BAKA! STOP BEING SUCH AN IDIOT AND LET THEM THROUGH!" She shrieked, the other team raised an eyebrow again at the odd behavior. Ino abandoned them to gloom her oh so precious Sasuke, Sakura following her lead and the two played a game of tug of war with Sasuke being the rope. Shikamaru turned to Asuma

"Are they always like this?" He asked

"They're a little worse today, but that could just be because I made them come here before sunrise." Kakashi said after popping up out of nowhere.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura yelled after winning the game of tug of war.

"Mornin' Kakashi Sensei!" Naruto said excitedly with a few fast waves, Kakashi waved back in a lazy manner and an eye smile.

"Good morning team, who wants to know what we're doing today?" He asked

"Training? A mission?"Naruto asked and Kakashi nodded at the second one

"A mission? Is it going to be like a C rank?" Kakashi shook his head " a B rank?" He nodded and Naruto's excitement grew instantly "are we escorting someone somewhere? Protecting someone? Or are we investigating a murdah?" Naruto added the last part jokingly with an accent for kicks, Kakashi's eyes widened and Asuma almost dropped his cigarette. "What?" Naruto asked confused at there looks, Shikamaru looked at his sensei, his eyes squinted suspiciously.

"Come on" Asuma said

"They're expecting us" Kakashi finished

"Who?" Sakura asked

"The other rookies and the Hokage." Nothing else was said after that, they went and soon made it to the hokage's office. Once they were all there, Tsunade went to work on explaining what was going on

"A two days ago a man named Nigai Aji was murdered inside of his apartment, I want you all to go around the area he was located at during and before the time of his death to try and help us figure out who it was who did it." Tsunade said and Tenten raised her hand "Yes?" Tsunade asked

"While I agree with the whole investigation, O don't think that some of us-" she motioned towards the entirety of team Kakashi and then to the team of Hinata, Choji, and Kiba "-are exactly qualified for this job." She finished and Tsunade nodded

'That's true, Sakura and Ino plus Sasuke equals chaos, Naruto plus Kiba equals loud arguing and fighting, and Hinata plus Naruto equals a trip to the emergency room. Not to mention that Shino gives people the creeps most of the time...' Tsunade thought and nodded towards the Jonin senseis. "You know what to do." Was all she said before Asuma's team left in a puff made by Asuma, Gai's teem sprinted off while shouting something of the power of youth, after all of them had left Tsunade sighed before opening a drawer and pulling out a bottle of sake. She didn't know why but she felt like something bad was going to happen soon.


	5. Chapter 5

My Info Guy

Nothing was found that would actually help them in the case, no one saw or heard anything at all, no one even saw the man walk home or leave from work besides the woman who had found him. Three months had last since the incident and it had fallen to the back of the genin's minds as a one time thing, being forgotten by most everyone. Naruto had not forgotten, he couldn't forget it and wouldn't forget it now or ever. Though he was running low on his left overs that had seemed to loose there unique flavor of something Naruto couldn't seem to explain, it still helped fill himself up enough to continue on in his normal life, or at least as close to normal as he would ever be in this lifetime. By the fourth month Naruto had run completely out of his leftovers and by the fifth he was hungry again. This was no ordinary hunger though mind you, it was one that could push one past the limits of sanity with ease if not dealt with. At the moment Naruto was pacing back and forth in his apartment, thinking of what to do next. He had been training, or rather, watching Kakashi train Sakura jutsu when Naruto noticed something; he grew hungrier whenever the chakra of someone else spiked, it was like smelling  
a tasty treat but not being able to quite grasp it. Naruto suddenly stopped pacing as he came to a decision to it Sasuke to use, he wanted to try something after all. He went to the burrow and started through the twists and turns of the large maze like structure before finally coming to a door. This door was the only way Sasuke could enter or leave the confines,nets of his home and Naruto decided to make use of the emo's surplus of chakra, being half as large as his own, he should fill him up way more then the last guy did.

"But even as I'm saying that..." Naruto said "I just can't bring myself to do it." Sasuke looked relieved before Naruto's frown turned into a wide grin "that's why she's going to do it." With that, Naruto moved to let the person behind him in. The girl behind him had icy blue eyes and long pink hair that went all the way down to her waist. Sasuke looked frightened again before getting cocky.

"Why should I, an Uchiha, be scared of a little girl! She looks weaker then you do and that's just sad." Sasuke taunted

"Because you can't use your chakra? Because the Uchiha Clan were never immortal? Because the thing that makes you special is your eyes and they won't help you here? Must I go on?" Naruto retorted

"And what was ever so special about you?! Your the dead last of our class and you're the worst ninja I have ever seen!"

"If I was truly the dead last then wh ninja when si many others didn't pass the exam?" Naruto said surprisingly calm

"Because I was on the same team as you and picked up your slack!" The Uchiha yelled again before his voice suddenly became raspy and he had a cuffing fit. He has hardly spoken at all in the past few months and his throat wasn't used to yelling,or even talking for to long. Naruto decided to drop the subject to turn back to his comrade.

"Don't worry about you not turning out good, she specializes in the cooking section of the Burrow and is great at what she does, she's going to make you into delicious pastries now smile, this is your last thinking moment of life so you won't feel a thing and for that you should be grateful." Naruto said before instantly striking out and hitting the side of Sasuke's head hard, Sasuke fell unconscious on impact. "Bye Sasuke!" Was the last thing Uchiha Sasuke ever heard before passing out and never waking up. Naruto nodded tot he girl and she and him carried Sasuke to her shop on one of the lower levels that had been decorated with the skin of multiple different types of creature. Naruto gulped a bit as he saw the walls before following her to the door in the back and heading in. Inside was a soundproof room, so as to not disturb the other residence that preferred not to hear the sounds of scream for whenever the guest was harvested alive. The girl strapped Sasuke down out of habit before pointing to a chair, signaling for Naruto to sit down and watch. "You want me to sit?" He asked

" You said that you have no real experience in the harvest so I decided that you should watch as I work. Just sit back and watch, next time you can help an awake guest." Diana said reassuringly. (Guess who I'm refusing to with her!)

"Ok" Naruto said before sitting down as instructed and watching as she worked. She carefully cut the stomachs open in one fell swoop and carefully cut out every organ she found before putting them in a large bowl by the side. She then slid the scalpel's blade a crossed the flesh of his left arm and carefully cutting out the muscle underneath before moving to the right one and then doing the same thing to the legs. When she was done she made Naruto help her tidy up before heading back up to the kitchen to cook the material into her pastries. While she cooked, Naruto hid the remains in the Uchiha Complex main building, when he returned to the bakery he smelt the sweet scent of a real bakery and went in. Diana turned to him and gave him the full view of her work. They were beautiful cupcakes decorated with whipped icing that was smooth looking and had the Uchiha design on some, the others looked like the three dotted sharingon in there respected colors.

"Do you like them?" She asked in her usual soft tone, Naruto nodded enthusiastically with a wide, excited grin.

"Yeah! Thanks a bunch Diana!" He yelled in excitement and she smiled kindly

"Glad you like them but please lower your volume. Loud noises only sound good when they're howls of pain." She said and Naruto looked a her strangely with wide eyes. He only killed for necessity, she was a sadist, but she was still a rather nice person, it only creeped him out.

"O-ok, sorry Diana-chan" he said nervously and she smile, appreciating his quieter tone before turning around and showing him a box of cupcakes that had yet to be decorated and she held out a container of frosting. "Thanks" he said, still quiet, and began to frost the pastries with orange, red, and white. He tried making the basic cupcake spiral but it ended up being a mess or orange icing. His second one was an Uzumaki clan chest, having the classical, red color, and it actually turned out decent. He made a few more swirls before trying to make a flat white iced one and failed miserably at it. Diana laughed at his mistakes in a friendly way before she helped him put them in a box wide enough for about ten cupcakes before she put the rest of them, the ones that she made, in a few other boxes.

"Do you want to share them?" She asked sweetly and Naruto thought about it for a second before nodding. "Then I suggest only sharing the ones you made, mine would be suspicious with there design." She said and Naruto nodded before taking the boxes as carefully as he could and carrying them to his room. When he reached the Living Lanes he shifted to having his wings, tails, and ears to help carry them up while in flight, the ears being the re from habit. He flapped his wings while holding the other boxes with his five tails, two boxes in his arms, as he made his way to his hole. When he landed he shifted all of the way and went to his room before setting the boxes in the kitchen. He opened one box that was not of his own decoration before taking a big bite, taking a fourth of it at once. A large smile instantly spread on his face and his wings mirrored the action as the flapped happily in his fox form. He devoured the treat before making himself some dinner of instant noodles before heading to work, he had the night shift for now anyway. 

Team ten(Ino Shika Cho) were hanging out, the more you know your teammates the better the teamwork, when they heard the news of Sasuke's corpse being found in a stat that seemed very similar to the one found in an apartment.

"Of you think it's the same guy?" Ino asked in a whisper and Shikamaru nodded before signaling them to follow him.

"Explain to me where are we going again?" Ino asked while Choji realized where they were headed, having memorized the route as well.

"I think we're,e going to the redlight district..." Choji said, knowing who they were going to see but not why. "Why are we going to Naruto's place?" He asked as he, Shikamaru, and Naruto had been friends from a young age.

"While Naruto is a bit of an idiot at times he is exceedingly street smart and can pick up things quick." Shikamaru said

"Naruto?! We're heading over to his place!" She paused when she realized how she sounded and changed topics " Why does he live in the redlight district? I'm not even aloud to be over here and your,e saying he lives here?" She asked and the other two nodded.

"Just don't tell your parents and they won't know." Shikamaru said but Choji still looked nervous.

"I don't know Shikamaru, my dad forbid me from coming over here..." he said while sweating as the streets became more and more chaotic and disorganized. The street lamps were all, for a lack of a better word, blown up. The bulbs had seemingly burst like a small explosion and the actual posts were either bent or had long gash like scratches on them. If the sun hadn't been up then the group wouldn't be able to see where they were going, but it was still mid day and just a bit past noon, the sun was high in the sky lighting there way through the dreary area that showed no resemblance to the Konoha they grew up in. Missing fliers hung on walls and doors and there seemed to be no outdoor light anywhere in sight. As they kept walking, avoiding the stares and hungry looks that some people gave them, namely beggars, druggies, and oddly well dressed woman.

"If we-re going to be here then we might as well be fast, no point in staying longer then we need to..." Ino said as another shiver went down her spine.

"This place is worse then I remember it" Shikamaru said while looking around quickly for trouble, none was found.

"Can we PLEASE hurry up?!" Ino asked, she didn't know why but the place was creeping her out.

"No need, we're here." Shikamaru said as he looked at the apartment complex in front of them and started making their way up the flight of stairs. When they got there they noticed a messily decorated cupcake on the nonexistent doormat informs of the blonde's door. Shikamaru nicked but found no answer so he went in, Choji and then Ino following closely behind. They heard singing and running water and realized Naruto was in the shower so they decided to wait.

"Should we really he here? This place is giving me the creeps..." Ino asked again "I mean Naruto's a nice guy and all but he's kind of dumb...what would he know of this case? He's not even an investigator for it!" She said in a slightly hushed tone and Choji came into the room with a snack in his hand. It was a white colored icing red velvet cupcake, the icing being a bit on the messy side but still delicious all of the same. "Choji you can't just eat someone else's food! Especially when we just broke into his house!" She whispered in a yell like tone as to not let Naruto know of their presence.

"He left one outside for the animals to eat so I don't think he really cares about me eating one." Choji retorted, still eating the messy sweet.

"...did Naruto make that?" Shikamaru asked out of nowhere

"I didn't know he could bake, they taste good but I think there might be a bit to much dye in the icing." Choji analyzed after swallowing, not caring to notice the lack of color in the icing.

"Why do you say that?" Ino asked while looking at the cupcake 'he probably means in the actual cupcake..." she thought

"It tastes a bit metallic." Choji said before instantly becoming silent as the bathroom door clicked as the door began to open, the intruders quickly ducked into different hiding spaces in the room as quickly and quietly as they could, he didn't see and Naruto walked out with a towel around his waist and he was singing to himself.

"?I feel so much better  
Now that you're gone forever  
I tell myself that I don't miss you at all  
I'm not lying, denying that I feel so much better now  
That you're gone forever  
Now things are coming clear  
And I don't need you here  
And in this world around me  
I'm glad you disappeared  
So I'll stay out all night-" as Naruto continued to sing he went through the few number of clothes he had and brought out a loose black shirt with an orange riming design and a pair of jeans, as well as under ware, and a brush. He set his clothes on his bed before letting go of his towel to finish drying his hair, unaware of the other people in the room, one of which being female and had a nosebleed.  
"Get drunk and fucking fight  
Until the morning comes  
I'll forget about our life  
I feel so much better  
Now that you're gone forever  
I tell myself that I don't miss you at all  
I'm not lying, denying that I feel so much better now  
That you're gone forever  
First time you screamed at me  
I should have made you leave  
I should have known it could be so much better  
I hope you're missing me  
I hope I've made you see  
That I'm gone forever  
And now it's coming clear  
That I don't need you here  
And in this world around me  
I'm glad you disappeared  
I feel so much better  
Now that you're gone forever  
I tell myself that I don't miss you at all  
I'm not lying, denying that I feel so much better now  
That you're gone forever  
And now you're gone forever  
And now you're gone forever?" Naruto finished his song (I don't own it!) and finished putting on his last article of clothing before moving to brushing his hair. "I know you're there by the way, come out or fear the wrath of the fireball" he said almost jokingly. To anyone who would normally break in and understand what he meant would freak out or get pissed but when nothing happened, Naruto turned around. He walked up to where he tasted the faint scent of flowers and found Ino hiding behind a chair and under his lone table, along with Choji while Shikamaru simply hid behind the door after Naruto opened it. "Uhhhmmmm...can I help you?" Naruto asked dumbly after a long moment of awkward silence.

"Yeah well.." Ino began but Naruto suddenly crouched down and saw what Choji was chewing on.

"Choji, why are you eating my cupadycakes?" Naruto said and purposely saying the word wrong to help lighten the mood while still hoping to be answered.

"'Cause they're tasty? Thought that much was obvious." Choji said while trying to complement Naruto, thinking he had been the one to make them.

"Well thanks for one but I only decorated them, a friend of mine made them." Naruto said "I was going to give you all some anyways.." he trailed off slightly and Ino continued with what she had tried to say earlier. She was more coolheaded then Sakura but still didn't really enjoy being interrupted but still didn't want to make things worse then they might already be, they did just break into someone else's home and not only steal from them but then hid. She was smart enough to know when it to call someone else out and thus seemed to be one of those moments so she held her head low until she knew she could speak without causing any problems.

"We actually came over here to ask you a few questions since we heard that you're pretty knowledgeable when it comes to rumors and street stuff, right Shikamaru?" She finished with a question aimed towards the only remaining hidden person in the room. Said person came out from his spot and Naruto pulled the other two from beneath his table before turning around again.

"Well if you guys are here to talk to me then I'll make something to eat, I pretty much never get any visitors so this might be fun!" He ended with an excited smile

'Ok, something is defiantly going on here, Naruto never acts this childish...' Shikamaru thought before looking at the still opened cupcake box and noticing a few were gone, probably from before they came here, he sweat dropped in realization 'is he on a sugar high? How many of those did he eat?' "Sure Naruto but I don't feel like eating instant ramen so why don't we just go out to eat something else? Are there any restaurants around here?" He asked and Naruto shook his head before thinking it over a bit more.

"There isn't,t any place that you guys would be interested in like at my old apartment but there are a few restaurants a block over I think...just don't drink anything there k?" He asked

"Why?" Ino asked, voicing her team's confusion, Naruto gave her a blank look before giving a slight giggle.

"Just trust me on this one, Don't. Drink. Anything. They. Have or else you'll wake up with a hangover without knowing how you got wherever you wound up." With that he grabbed his froggy wallet and left with them over to the next place over. It was a nice place actually with decent food and the service was friendly enough, Naruto greeted them with a friendly smile when he waved at a person behind the desk. Who came out to give him a tight hug that almost squeezed the life out of the poor boy. While she was doing this, Shikamaru studied her, something about her seemed off. She looked normal enough at first glance but her features seemed to perfect. Nothing about her was to big or small and she had curves that seemed like they would suit someone a bit older. She was an older teen, older then them certainly but not by too much, maybe only by two or so years but it still seemed unreal. Her hair was golden like her eyes but with bluish purple tips. When he thought about it, everyone there seemed to match her in some way from body type to level of a unreal perfection. Ino was looking at the other women in the room with envy for there looks when Shikamaru realized something.

'Are we under a genjutsu?' He wondered before carefully so as to not be noticed made a hand sign and releasing himself. The people around him seemed to look the same but without that odd sense of perfect beauty and he turned back to the sofa caring Naruto who's head was squashed by the older teen's bust.

"Chotto otōto, dōdeshita ka? Anata no tomodachi wa daredesu ka?" She asked before finally realizing she was suffocating her fellow blonde who gasped for air and coffed for a bit until his face was no longer blue. Once he could actually breath he spoke back.

"Furui tomodachi, atarashī tomodachi, soshite watashi wa ī yo. Watashitachiha tabemono o tsukamu tame ni." Naruto replied and I am a cheater who likes pumpkin pie and google translate since my school doesn't teach Japanese. Don't judge people -_- ps, can someone,please,fox the wall O just broke? The fourth one? Thanks!

"Watashi wa sorera o shitte imasu ka? Karera wa doko ni sunde iru no? Karera wa dare no mamadesu ka? Anata no o heya o sōji shimasu ka? Anata no kaji wa? Anata wa inu o aruita nodesu ka?" She replied in one go with light stop and it all seemed to be one sentence. Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino didn't understand anything that they were saying and watched the conversation they couldn't understand, little did they know that Naruto was using their lack of communication to his advantage.

"Hahhahha, omoshiroi, memes no fukki hahhahhanaichingēru-chan? Watashitachiha ima tabeteīdesu ka, korera no hito-tachi wa dare ga sorera no hito o koroshita no ka o rikai shiyou to shite imasu, karera ga akai berubettode wa naku, karera wa oishī to itte, kare o haku makng wa imi ga aru node watashi wa kare ni sore ni tsuite hanashimasen." The now declared Nightingale snickered slightly before letting Naruto sit down at a tab,e in the back.

"Well I still thought it was funny mister sarcasm, want me to make you some orange juice?" She asked sweetly and Naruto gave her a light glare.

"After the last time? I saw what you did and Ed was hallucinating until the morning and I'm. It taking those chances thank you very much." Naruto replied sharply without realizing that they could now understand him.

"Had to try ya know" she said while quoting on Naruto's main vocal tick and he blew a raspberry at her, she rolled her eye and left without taking there order.

"Now that we're alone would you like to ask your questions?" Naruto asked after getting comfy in the cushioned bench chair.

"Well, as you may or may not know, Sasuke is dead and was killed in the same manner as the last man and we wanted to know if you knew anything about it." Shikamaru asked and Naruto nodded

"Rummer has it that an old myth has resumed in its practice." Naruto said in a surprisingly knowledgeable tone, all silly behavior gone for the conversation.

"An old myth?" Choji asked and Naruto nodded

"There are books about it in the old library, the one that was burnt down a few years back, but the gist of it are demons devouring people for there life source to use as food." Naruto said

"Is that the entire thing?" Ino asked as she didn't think that this was worth the trouble, Naruto shook his head no.

"No but, before we continue I want you to not say who gave you this info ok?" It wasn't a question, he was basically saying that if they didn't make this promise then he wouldn't say anything else.

"Ok ok we promise, your'e just our info guy alright?" Shikamaru asked and Naruto nodded before continuing

"They're mor ethen just myths, you know how summoning works right? Well these demons were like the summons of a certain clan. When this clan was betrayed by Konoha and brought to near extinction the summons started attacking the people of Konoha, the object of there rage, but most of them were either killed or captured for inhuman experiments. The remaining ones who believed there comrades to all have been dead were forced to relocate to the forest of death as it is now called until a few months ago when one of the younger creatures of the newer generation decided to strike a man to feed there hunger. A while later they strike again and this time leave something behind that tell some of the people that they're back and when they did that, the people in the area figured out what was going on and did what they had to do to prevent there own death. You know that cupcake you found by my door? That's how you tell them not to kill you and eat your guts and stuff." Naruto finished and Choji looked confused

"I thought you said that these things like eating souls right? So how do guts and stuff feed them? Or cupcakes on that matter." Choji asked and Naruto dreaded that question slightly but decided to at least try to avoid answering before coming up with an excuse that wasn't to bad but it wasn't all to goo either for Choji's appetite.

"You don't really want to know Choji, you did eat one after all." Naruto said but Choji wasn't going to take no for an answer and neither were Ino or Shikamaru. "Well, the vital areas of bodily function have our life energy flowing around it right? You know how Chakra is in the muscles and stuff too?" Two nods each well it's kind of like that in a way, blood is actually filled with our chakra, especially when you don't use your actual chakra much, so all you really have to do is take blood and cook your own living blood into something, a couple cupcakes for instance, and then the creatures will take that and leave you alone while they hunt." The facts were all messed up but Naruto doubted that they would ever know it. He was originally going to just give his treats as treats until he researched his kind's history and found out the fate of Konoha. People were going to die, a lot of them, but not all of them. It was like a game; the predator eats some of the prey to keep them from extinction by overpopulating but also leave a decent amount left alive. The tree had many games to go before it could ever be seen in the light of peace by the predators, it had already begun.


	6. Chapter 6

The Pack

"Oh come on Naruto, it can't be that bad." Choji said while munching on some chips

'If only you knew' Naruto thought before saying the much less real version of what the cupcake was made of. "It was made infused with blood." Naruto said before gesturing to himself "mine o course" he looked at the now pale Choji "a friend of mine cooked them, but this recipe had special ingredients." Naruto explained, the lies slipping out of his mouth with ease. Just after he said this, the girl from earlier and another, slightly younger girl came out. This one had blue grey fingerless gloves and a sleeveless gray hoodie with seven blueish bubbles on the side. She had a lighter, more natural looking blonde shade of hair that covered most of one of her golden eyes. Each of them carried a tray, each tray carried a plate of freshly cooked food. They set it down and Naruto quickly swiped the plate on the far end. "Dibs!" He yelled and dug into the light meal. The newer girl set a plate informant of the rest of there guests before giving them a goofy smile and walking away. Choji looked at his food that he hadn't ordered before pushing it away, disgusted at the thought of eating after realizing that what he had eaten earlier wasn't meant to be red velvet. Shikamaru and Ino eyed their food and then Naruto.

"We didn't order anything..." Ino said, Naruto didn't reply for a minute as he ate something that seemed to resemble a weird mashed up stuffing.

"There isn't much here to order, the main dish that they have here right now is the Thanksgiving surprise and the Valentines choco desert special, though there are a few other things that they have, those are probably the only things that they actually have the stuff to make." Naruto said 'this place isn't exactly for your kind after all, these are some of the only things that you could really eat here.' He added the second part mentally and continued to eat. As he continued to eat without another interruption as the others seemed to have gotten all that they wanted to know, he frowned slightly as he felt his stomach growl quietly in an un satisfied way. It was quiet for now, but he knew that soon it would grow louder and louder, if not to them then to his ears alone. The three started to leave after putting a few dollars on the table but Shikamaru decided that he wanted to know one last thing, he thought that he had already heard the answer but wants to make sure.

"I think earlier you mentioned something and as troublesome as it is to ask you it, you mentioned a library on this part of town that has some information on demons right?" Naruto nodded "there isn't anything like that in the main library, I know since my dad used to bring me there and I looked around, where is the library that you were talking about?" Naruto blinked.

"Somewhere in the...darker part of the red light district. I think it was burned down years ago though, good luck finding anything over there. I honestly don't know exactly where it is really but I heard that it's somewhere in the trafficking area, not sure we're that is either though." 'Not going to tell you where either of those are' Shikamaru nodded before following his teammates. When they left, Naruto stayed behind and the two girls from earlier came out again.

"Did they seriously leave money? Dumbasses." Nightingale said as she pocketed the cash, the other girl gasped and glared in a child like manner.

"No saying no nos!" She almost yelled, she honestly didn't normally care for cussing much unless in certain situations or from certain people. Naruto looked at her for a moment, noticing that something was off about his sibling before moving the fallen bangs away from her face and to the side. She looked at him with her crossed yellow eyes, confused, and Naruto gave her a kind smile.

"You're beautiful, eyes and all." Naruto said and she made an oh sound

"They just fell there since I didn't brushed it earlier." She said while mispronouncing a word (I do this a lot when I'm tired or just after eating ice cream, my tongue gets cold) Naruto got up, trying not to be suffocated by his half sister, or her bust. Naruto waved to them, and the entire room waved back.

"By Naru-kun!" A girl with a slim waste a smaller bust said, she had brown hair with red streaks and blue eyes.

"See ya Naru-chan!" Another girl said, this one having orange hair with blonde tips.

"Later kawaii-kun-chan" Naruto blinked at the odd nickname, this girl had deep blue hair that smoothed into black, she was skinny and tall with very short black hair that was ragged but smooth to the touch and shinny. Naruto stopped paying attention and left the EIG (External Intelligence Gatherers) to his home. His hunger was growing by the day, he had taken to eating one of the pastries each day before and after bed, in the morning with breakfast and in the afternoon before sleeping. His hunger was growing fast, and the pastries weren't fresh enough to maintain him for too much longer.

Naruto opened the box and picked up one of the nicely decorated cupcakes before devouring it whole, eating a second one before the hunger was bearable, he only had a few more left that were meant for he would need to harvest again soon.

"But for now..." Naruto picked up the mostly full box of messily decorated treats "I have an errand to run before tonight's big hunt starts, might even get to catch a bite if I have time." Naruto smiled before taking the box and leaving his apartment once more. He was at Sakura's house and set one of the cupcakes down by her window. It glowed for a moment before returning back to normal and Naruto left to deliver the treats to the other houses.

Sakura  
Shizune  
Shikamaru  
Ino  
Tenten  
Tsunade  
Neji  
The list went on until there was only one last treat left, Naruto carefully delivered it to Iruka's doorstep with care, making sure that he was ahead of the deadline and not seen by anyone. The cupcake glowed for a few seconds before returning to normal, as did all of them when he did this. What he told Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru was partially wrong, they were made from Sasuke, everything but his spirit went into them. The soul especially, or at least the life source of the soul. It was funny, Sasuke has been declared dead but he was still alive, a very small portion of Sasuke, but he was still alive for now. Naruto took to the roofs of the shops and houses as the sun finally made its complete way down, soon enough and the sky would be completely devoid of its celestial bodies as it was a new moon tonight. The stars twinkled as the sky became darker, Naruto being pulled out of his almost daze like state when he heard the sound of a light bulb exploding with a small breaking sound, as if it had been dropped to the floor, and he watched as the small pieces of still lightened glass fell down to the ground with a beautiful shimmer as if it were a firework on the Fourth of July. The first explosion of light was soon joined as the many other fireworks went off and an unnatural darkness flooded the area, if he had been human then he wouldn't have been able to see at all but then again, he wasn't human. Soon the sounds that those the darkness effected would be death to sounded throughout the area, slowly growing in numbers as the screams of fear and pain sounded through. Naruto smiled a small smile, he had been merciful with his food and ended somewhat quickly but, like children, most of the others liked to play with there food. Naruto heard a familiar voice, or rather laugh, and he went over towards his group. They were all blondes of different shades but they were all teens. The Alpha of the siblings smiled at Naruto when he arrived before turning back towards the streets were other creatures roamed in and out of houses, most of whom being slick with blood. Naruto's earlier small smile turned into a face splitting, insane one.

"Hun **g** r **y** " was the only thing that was said before the sound of screams were the only thing that could be heard through the silent night.


	7. Chapter 7

Meetings

Inoichi looked at the investigation that had happened just next door with horror. It was inhumane, blood littered the area in puddles and splatters, indents on the walls and deep gashes into the wall and floor. It looked as if someone, no, something had used the man as a toy of some sort, the walls were smashed and the corpse had been tossed around and slung from the head, the neck having scratches that seemed to be from light cuts. The man's wife had been torn up in multiple pieces, her remains littering a smaller area than the man's in every way. Tsume looked at the body in disgust, every ninja had been on this investigation with the exception of a decent number of the genin and Tsume was no different.

"This is disgusting, what a painful way to die." She examined the body "it almost looks like the poor guy was used like a dog toy, there had to be at least two...things here if the prints are anything to go by." She looked at the two sets of large canine foot prints in the blood. "My question is how this thing got through the door, they would have to be huge! Way to big to fit through without breaking the door at the very least." Inoichi was deep in thought, he just didn't understand this.

'Why didn't I hear anything? I was right next door! I should have at least head the banging or screams...' he just didn't understand it, how had this happened and Why?

-Council Room Meeting

Tsunade was in the middle of the most important meeting she had ever been in, the civilian council were actually behaving for once and that alone should cause worry. Mebuki, a member of the civilian council and owner of a decent number of shops, was actually quiet for once. Her sister had died among the casualties of last night, she didn't even care about the countless orphans that had also disappeared that night, her sister worked at the orphanage as one of the higher ups of the place and the building had been swept clean of life. Everyone was scared, everyone was confused, no one knew what was happening or what to do. An unknown enemy had attacked them blindly int he middle of the night with no witnesses in sight, at least one that they knew of. Tsunade was trying to run collateral damage.

"We can't keep this to ourselves, we need help! We need to get the kazekage to help figure out who is doing this and we need to do it before we get attacked again!" Mebuki suddenly yelled and the entire room instantly broke into loud yelling and arguing. There was no order present at all, nothing but chaos seemed to be present in the room as its occupants yelled and argued over fights that no one else could hear, there own frightened yells and ideas being to loud and mashed together to the point of the sound being mashed into noise. Senseless, pointless, loud noise that only hurt all of there ears.

"ALL OF YOU, SHUT THE HELL UP!" Tsunade managed to below over the pointless noise. Everything was silent as Tsunade cleared her throat

"The Daimyo and Kazekage have already both hade letters sent to, for now, we all just need to work on damage control and clean up. By the time our guests arrive we should have everything somewhat fixed. Now we need to discuss who's doing what for this, there's a lot of lamp posts that need to be fixed." Tsunade said as they soon began discussing what things needed to be done.

~Shikamaru's POV~

I walked through the streets with my team by my side (ISC is what they will now be called) as we walked further into the red light district. This area seemed to be abandoned by most and the houses looked as if they hadn't been used in a very long time. The lamp posts were rusted and bent in odd angles, similar to the ones in the other part of town but much older. It looked as if the meddle had started to rust were they touched the ground and bent. The area actually looked nice, it's troublesome but if this place had been kept care of then it would be one of the nicest parts of town rather than the worst. We had been walking around, looking for something that might not even be here, for three entire troublesome hours with no real progress to show for our effort.

"Shikamaru...what...what do you think happened here?" Ino asked, she had been pale for the most of the day after the realizations were made, I can't really blame her though, her area is one of the ones that was hit the hardest last night. About twenty people in that area were killed brutally and none of us heard it. It's actually pretty scary though...to be attacked blindly and not even realizing it until it's all over...

"I don't know..." I said before we finally found it. It was almost completely burnt down but there was still the under ground section, the stairs were easily exposed and the blackened wood of the shelves all appeared empty. There are a few decayed and blackened books on the ground that seemed to have faced every different season's harsh weather, those seemed to be turning into dust as they crumbled away into nothingness. I can only hope that what we're looking for is still here, preferably downstairs and protected from the troublesome elements.

-No one's POV

The three made there decent through the creaking, old stairs, to the lower level of the destroyed library.

"Be careful guys, the stairs break so don't do anything stupid." Ino said, carefully walking on the sides, trying to be closer to the wall where the stairs were sturdier. When they got to the ground the saw nothing but empty shelves, well, mostly empty. There were a few shelves that held a few old books that seemed to be in slightly good condition.

"Ok guys, start looking around for anything that could be useful." Shikamaru said, walking to a wall and muttering a troublesome before beginning to work on finding anything that could help their situation.

~Unknown Location~

A ravenette lade in pitch black darkness that seemed to surround him. He waited until his head no longer felt as if it were stuffed with cotton. After a few hours he managed to stand and walk to a wall, it took much longer than he expected it to take. He studied the area around him with the senses that he still had at his disposal, he was in a large old wooden room that seemed to be decaying almost, the type of the wood was a special, extra hard one. The amount of would and the smell suggested that he was somewhere in an abandoned building here a forest like town.

'The fact that no one has attacked me yet means that no one is here right now, why can't I feel my chakra? It's best to not try to use it right now, there seem to be some sort of chakra restrictors here, I can't risk them knowing of me being awake.' With that, the ravenette continued his walk along with the wall at a decent yet cautious pace. After a few minutes, the lights seemed to turn on and the room suddenly changed to one that was almost pure white. A bit ahead of him was a bright minty blue line and he noticed the wall that seemed to teleport to behind him started to move forward silently behind him closer to his back, ushering him forward. He went into a small jog when the walls on his sides started to close in on him as well. He was soon on the other side of the line and in a different room, it was a hallway that led to a door, behind him went on and out of his site in the odd, glowing, pure white endlessness. He opened the door and walked into a darker room with technology that he had never seen before. He didn't, understand the screen, or it's purpose. He noticed that there were small scratch marks endented into the desk before him and he sat down in the chair, noticing that the chair was tuned to suit a smaller person than himself. Just then, the screen turned itself on and flashed the room to life, the teen shielded his eyes from the sudden light. On the other side of the screen was a blonde teenage boy, a bit younger then himself, with golden blonde hair and slitted golden eyes. He had almost feline ears, but they looked more foxlike then anything else. He wore a red sweatshirt and had a pair of light yellow wings showing behind him.

" _Hello, Itachi Uchiha_ "


	8. Chapter 8

Itachi's Decision and the Attack

Inoichi looked at the investigation that had happened just next door with horror. It was inhumane, blood littered the area in puddles and splatters, indents on the walls and deep gashes into the wall and floor. It looked as if someone, no, something had used the man as a toy of some sort, the walls were smashed and the corpse had been tossed around and slung from the head, the neck having scratches that seemed to be from light cuts. The man's wife had been torn up in multiple pieces, her remains littering a smaller area than the man's in every way. Tsume looked at the body in disgust, every ninja had been on this investigation with the exception of a decent number of the genin and Tsume was no different.

"This is disgusting, what a painful way to die." She examined the body "it almost looks like the poor guy was used like a dog toy, there had to be at least two...things here if the prints are anything to go by." She looked at the two sets of large canine foot prints in the blood. "My question is how this thing got through the door, they would have to be huge! Way to big to fit through without breaking the door at the very least." Inoichi was deep in thought, he just didn't understand this.

'Why didn't I hear anything? I was right next door! I should have at least head the banging or screams...' he just didn't understand it, how had this happened and Why?

-Council Room Meeting

Tsunade was in the middle of the most important meeting she had ever been in, the civilian council were actually behaving for once and that alone should cause worry. Mebuki, a member of the civilian council and owner of a decent number of shops, was actually quiet for once. Her sister had died among the casualties of last night, she didn't even care about the countless orphans that had also disappeared that night, her sister worked at the orphanage as one of the higher ups of the place and the building had been swept clean of life. Everyone was scared, everyone was confused, no one knew what was happening or what to do. An unknown enemy had attacked them blindly int he middle of the night with no witnesses in sight, at least one that they knew of. Tsunade was trying to run collateral damage.

"We can't keep this to ourselves, we need help! We need to get the kazekage to help figure out who is doing this and we need to do it before we get attacked again!" Mebuki suddenly yelled and the entire room instantly broke into loud yelling and arguing. There was no order present at all, nothing but chaos seemed to be present in the room as its occupants yelled and argued over fights that no one else could hear, there own frightened yells and ideas being to loud and mashed together to the point of the sound being mashed into noise. Senseless, pointless, loud noise that only hurt all of there ears.

"ALL OF YOU, SHUT THE HELL UP!" Tsunade managed to below over the pointless noise. Everything was silent as Tsunade cleared her throat

"The Daimyo and Kazekage have already both hade letters sent to, for now, we all just need to work on damage control and clean up. By the time our guests arrive we should have everything somewhat fixed. Now we need to discuss who's doing what for this, there's a lot of lamp posts that need to be fixed." Tsunade said as they soon began discussing what things needed to be done.

~Shikamaru's POV~

I walked through the streets with my team by my side (ISC is what they will now be called) as we walked further into the red light district. This area seemed to be abandoned by most and the houses looked as if they hadn't been used in a very long time. The lamp posts were rusted and bent in odd angles, similar to the ones in the other part of town but much older. It looked as if the meddle had started to rust were they touched the ground and bent. The area actually looked nice, it's troublesome but if this place had been kept care of then it would be one of the nicest parts of town rather than the worst. We had been walking around, looking for something that might not even be here, for three entire troublesome hours with no real progress to show for our effort.

"Shikamaru...what...what do you think happened here?" Ino asked, she had been pale for the most of the day after the realizations were made, I can't really blame her though, her area is one of the ones that was hit the hardest last night. About twenty people in that area were killed brutally and none of us heard it. It's actually pretty scary though...to be attacked blindly and not even realizing it until it's all over...

"I don't know..." I said before we finally found it. It was almost completely burnt down but there was still the under ground section, the stairs were easily exposed and the blackened wood of the shelves all appeared empty. There are a few decayed and blackened books on the ground that seemed to have faced every different season's harsh weather, those seemed to be turning into dust as they crumbled away into nothingness. I can only hope that what we're looking for is still here, preferably downstairs and protected from the troublesome elements.

-No one's POV

The three made there decent through the creaking, old stairs, to the lower level of the destroyed library.

"Be careful guys, the stairs break so don't do anything stupid." Ino said, carefully walking on the sides, trying to be closer to the wall where the stairs were sturdier. When they got to the ground the saw nothing but empty shelves, well, mostly empty. There were a few shelves that held a few old books that seemed to be in slightly good condition.

"Ok guys, start looking around for anything that could be useful." Shikamaru said, walking to a wall and muttering a troublesome before beginning to work on finding anything that could help their situation.

~Unknown Location~

A ravenette lade in pitch black darkness that seemed to surround him. He waited until his head no longer felt as if it were stuffed with cotton. After a few hours he managed to stand and walk to a wall, it took much longer than he expected it to take. He studied the area around him with the senses that he still had at his disposal, he was in a large old wooden room that seemed to be decaying almost, the type of the wood was a special, extra hard one. The amount of would and the smell suggested that he was somewhere in an abandoned building here a forest like town.

'The fact that no one has attacked me yet means that no one is here right now, why can't I feel my chakra? It's best to not try to use it right now, there seem to be some sort of chakra restrictors here, I can't risk them knowing of me being awake.' With that, the ravenette continued his walk along with the wall at a decent yet cautious pace. After a few minutes, the lights seemed to turn on and the room suddenly changed to one that was almost pure white. A bit ahead of him was a bright minty blue line and he noticed the wall that seemed to teleport to behind him started to move forward silently behind him closer to his back, ushering him forward. He went into a small jog when the walls on his sides started to close in on him as well. He was soon on the other side of the line and in a different room, it was a hallway that led to a door, behind him went on and out of his site in the odd, glowing, pure white endlessness. He opened the door and walked into a darker room with technology that he had never seen before. He didn't, understand the screen, or it's purpose. He noticed that there were small scratch marks endented into the desk before him and he sat down in the chair, noticing that the chair was tuned to suit a smaller person than himself. Just then, the screen turned itself on and flashed the room to life, the teen shielded his eyes from the sudden light. On the other side of the screen was a blonde teenage boy, a bit younger then himself, with golden blonde hair and slitted golden eyes. He had almost feline ears, but they looked more foxlike then anything else. He wore a red sweatshirt and had a pair of light yellow wings showing behind him.

" _Hello, Itachi Uchiha_ "


	9. Chapter 9

Darkness

-No one's POV

Everyone in the room froze as they heard the sound of a loud bang, as if something broke, and looked around the room to see what it was.

"What was that?" Neji asked, wiping around to face the others, no one had an answer but even if they did they wouldn't have been able to answer. A loud, unhumanistic howl echoed through the room. Everyone looked but couldn't find the source of the sound, but they did notice something else.

"Where's Hinata?" Sakura asked as she looked through the room's occupants. No one had an answer, the room was a dreary quiet until a loud, viscous roar of pain echoed from the other side one of the shelves. Ino was looking hrough the shelf with her flashlight before gasping, another roar of pain sounding as she pointed the bright light at it through the gap between the layers of the shelf.

"What in the name of Kami is that!?" Ino yelled when she saw it. The creature seemed to recede some from its spot and hid in the shadows

"Nock it down!" Kakashi yelled before Lee suddenly kicked it, it fell down with an almost fallow bang on the floor, the sound seeming to echo. With the shelf no gone, the creature was in the view of all of the room's occupants. It had sleek, dark purple fur that covered its long body. It had green eyes that glared atIno with venom and hissed at them. It had shinny claws that seemed to be made of steel. It had snake like fangs and a mid-long, bony neck and short ears that were tipped with a dark blue. The creature hissed at them and leapt at them, making the distance easily with its long, slim limbs. Before it could attack, and before anyone could do anything, another creature flashed up the stairs and grabbed the other's tail before slinging him down, looking back at them and growling loudly before diving down the large stairs with its large wings.

"Ummmmmm what just happened?" Choji asked before noticing that Hinata was bleeding. They rushed her to the hospital as fast as they could. She seemed to have lost much more blood than that kind of wound normally would and had passed out from blood loss.

~Hospital~

Shizune walked into her office, being the official head of the hospital and emergency care unit gives you one after all. Tsunade had originally planned to be the head of the medical unit, from ninja medics to the hospital, but ended up being blown away by the duties of being the hokage. Shizune would normally be babysitting the hokage and making sure she didn't become so wasted that she was incapable of any actual work but Tsunade had been busy with a meeting with the Gaara of the Sand so she actually had a chance to do her job. She had been drinking a cup of tea, on her brake, when a nurse ran into her room and told her that there was an emergency that needed her assistance immediately. She rushed to the room that she was directed to as fast as she could and, considering the fact that she was a ninja, that was pretty fast. When she reached the emergency entrance and saw a group of ninja and one girl that looked around Naruto's age, but she had been carried by one of the older ninja from the group. She was bloody, that much was clear, and had a noticeable lack of flesh and blood over a part of one of her shoulders. She strange into action and ordered the ninja whom carried the bloody girl to a hospital and worked towards getting rid of all of the chaos that had suddenly presented itself to her normally calm working space.

-Shizune's POV

I ordered some of the nurses to bring certain supplies to the girl's room before ordering the remaining ninja to either leave or relocate towards the waiting room. Once the space had been cleared of the unwanted crowdedness, I went to the hospital room and began working. One of the doctors was already working on getting a blood transplant for the girl, who I was informed was named Hinata, and then began working on fixing the lost patch of skin and flesh. As I looked it over, I noticed that it had been just a bit deeper then the top of the muscle, multiple strands of muscles tissues had been torn away like cut strings. This was NOT something that I can fix with just a needle and thread, I'll have to use medical ninjutsu. I raised my hands over the missing flesh and let my hands gain a light green aura made out of chakra. I carefully applied more chakra to my hands and watched as the muscle began fixing itself and the skin re-aligning and the cut becoming smaller and less deep. I cut the energy to my hands once the gash was doable, I can't just completely age her arm and heal it all of the way, that would cause major problems later on in her life! I carefully examined the injury and noticed something strange in the edges of the torn skin, was turning green. Had I not noticed it earlier? I probably just overlooked it when I was healing her, seeing as healing chakra is green and I can't see the colors clearly through it. I took a blood sample and quickly checked it for anything wrong. I found some sort of venomous liquid, but I have no idea what it does. I can't take the chance of it not being harmful, I'll have to remove the more contaminated areas of skin.

"Ok Hinata, I don't know if you can hear me, but here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to sedate you for a while so that you don't wake up. Then I need to remove some of your skin. Let's just hope that it takes care of whatever this is." I said before grabbing a syringe and injecting the unconscious girl with the liquid and waited for it to kick in, I don't want her waking up from the pain when I start after all. When I checked her heart beat and saw it quiet down a bit more I knew that the medicine had activated. Grabbing a scalpel, I carefully looked at the different tissues for anything else wrong, and slicing away the green skin and tainted fat underneath. The cuts that I was making were all thin and small, it hadn't spread much yet, and I was glad that her healing wouldn't take too long. I carefully stitched it up before putting a bandage wrap around her shoulder and armpit. After that I pushed my chakra into my hands again and carefully sent it through her body to check for any other injury. It was all going well until my chakra suddenly bounced back to me unexpectedly in some of the chakra points in her hands. I inspected them and the chakra points in them and eventually found out that each and every point in her hands were blown, as if they had been shocked by the inside or...as if her chakra hadn't been able to leave her body when she wanted it to. Realization struck me and, once I fixed the young kunuchi up completely, I ran to find Lady Tsunade. No one asked as I ran through the hospital hallway, this was a normal activity in all honesty, what with all of the crazy events that seems to happen here. I quickly made it to the front entrance and ran out, heading straight to the Hokage Tower. Someone has to tell them, they have to know! I had stopped to catch my breath, had I gotten out of shape? I know that I had been working at the farther of the two hospitals in the village, the one that was the farthest from her current desperation. I made a few more huffs and had been just about to start running again when I heard a sound, one that made my blood run cold. It was just a simple sound of a light bulb going out, or rather, the sound of a light bulb exploding and casting me in sudden, unexpected and unnatural darkness. "No..." I said and noticed my chakra starting to slowly disappear, becoming numb to me "No" I started off again in a full on sprint, trying to beat the darkness that seemed to follow me as the darkness tried to consume me in its deadly, sharp, and unforgiving jaws.


	10. Chapter 10

The Meeting

~unknown Location~  
~No one's POV~

A golden creature flapped through the bottom of the long secret entrance before slamming the door shut behind her and flinging the other creature from behind her to inform of her. She made strange snarls and barks before her body glowed as she changed into a young adult with long golden hair with purple-blue tips.

"the HELL was that!?" She yelled, clearly enraged. The strange purple creature changed into his own human-ish form: he was a young teen with purple hair and deep blue tips, a pair of fangs poked at his lips.

"S-sorry ma'am..." he said dejectedly, the girl's eyes softened slightly and she gave a deep sigh

"It's alright, you're hungry. Just...wait until the next hunt to try something like that alright? Now come one, Let's go get something to eat newbie." She said comfortingly before shifting again and padding the ground were a new hole appeared for the two to jump through. The purple one jumped through and the other one, known as Nightingale, gave an almost bird like yip to the nearby patrollers before jumping in the hole and following the other creature. Six other creatures came to the retired, old entrance and began boarding it up before sealing it with a strange black liquid that turned to hard stone once it was faded down.

~With Ed~

A door opened and closed to release a golden haired, young teenage boy who seemed rather eager to leave the cramped space.

"I am sooo looking forward to the next swap" he said agitatedly as he stretched his sore limbs again. He did it every time he finished his shift, at least his shift for his current job, seeing as he had to do nothing other then sit there and question others. He was more hands on, he liked helping the build of their home and other productive or more important jobs. 'Good thing this was my last shift until the next swap' he told himself happily before his stomach gave a a small growl, a plea for substance that had not fallen on death ears, so the young blonde made his way through the constantly changing tunnels until he found himself on one of the eating levels of the burrow. Edward sniffed the air for a few seconds before making a sudden dash towards one of the engraved miniature dens that made up their restaurants, one of which had made a delicious aroma that just called to him and made his mouth water. "Yahoo!" He yelled, throwing his arms up in the air happily, multiple other creatures either giggling at his show or rolling their eyes with a smile.

"Wow Eddie, you seem excited" a golden haired girl said jokingly, a younger teen behind her, Ed blew a raspberry at her jokingly.

"Don't call me Eddie" he said, slightly annoyed before taking notice of the other boy "so that's what you're doing down here, I thought that you would still be on duty around now Nightingale." He said while giving the other boy a small wave, said boy returned it before dashing away to another restaurant.

"Kid was found out" Nightingale whispered and Ed nodded understandingly.

"Did he get a check up?" He asked, Nightingale shook her head

"I looked him over; he's fine. Have you seen Naru? Any idea where he is?" Nightingale asked suddenly, Ed shrugged

"Noooo idea" he said in a sing song tone before spinning around suddenly "now let's go eat!" He jumped into the other room with stars in his eyes and Nightingale followed behind, but not before twitching at a sudden alarm that was calling one of the cells, it was quiet but still there. Multiple creatures suddenly zoomed off towards Kuru's den for their instructions but they seemed to have some sort of urgency in their behavior, they were moving too fast and making too serious of movements to be simply asking a question. Something must have been going on.

"I wonder what's happening with them..." she wondered to herself before following her half brother into the other cave.

-With Kurama

A large, majestic nine-tailed kitsune paced slightly as she waited for the requested cell whom she had picked for a certain job. She was the leader, the mother of the many kits in her newly founded clan, and when something went wrong she knew. That's how these kind of packs work, it was almost as if they were all just part of a single, complicated organism in a way, and it was almost scary how fast news traveled through the course of time, at least to others, it was no shock to them for they actually understood the reasons and explanations behind it all. Kurama stopped her pacing suddenly when a few other creatures came into her den, it was her requested cell. She nuzzled them for a mere moment before going back to work.

"What do you need us to do Kurama? The Alpha of the group asked with both respect and pride in his voice.

"There has been a new development, on of the new kits tried to hunt without my consent and was found out, and the one who has healed the injured prey has discovered some of our abilities, I need you all to go and silence her." She said with a smooth voice.

"Understood!" The collective conscious of the cell yelled in unison before dashing out to do their job.

"I'm also going to need to remove that library...probably should have a while ago..." Kurama said in a quiet mumble to herself before getting to work on organizing a few other cells to a few other jobs. "This is going to be a busy week."

-With Shizune

Shizune looked on in horror as she realized that her chakra had gone numb without her knowledge

'The first step of them getting you...' she thought to herself grimly as she ran, trying to outrun the darkness that continually tried to grasp her in their deadly jaws, what she wasn't expecting though was for them to darken the lights in front of her, and she was then at the mercy of her captures. No one heard her screams of pain, fear, and terror, and no one would find her corpse until at least the next day. When the cell finished their meal they looked at the moon above them befriend dragging the remaining corpse into the alley and disappearing into the night. There would be no major hunt tonight, they had decided to give the people a little break before digging in again and feasting into there delicious meal.

-With Tsunade

Tsunade was drinking a cup of tea, not her usual drink but she had to stay sober for now, when her cup suddenly cracked and broke into shards, her drink spilling onto the ground below. Gaara looked at the cup for a few seconds, knowing what it meant, and the bad luck that would follow.

-In the Burrow

A louder then usual alarm went off in every den, burrow, and room of the hive-like structure and the many creatures put a pause in their jobs to end down to the sleeping chamber, were they did most of their meetings. Kurama herself had called them all down, so this must be important. When all of the different creatures were in their respective spots, sitting at the entrance if their own holes (entrance to their rooms and separate chambers if you forgot) Kurama cleared her throat to make them all silent. Once they were, she began to speak.

"Hello my kits" she began, earning a very large amount of hi's back "now as you are aware we are now back in business and are almost completely finished with making our burrow complete, aside from a few more exit points and the fact that we need to make ourselves a forest in the lower level, but it seems that we are running out of food." A few murmurs of agreement and shock went throughout the collective occupants of the room "But fear not! This is being fixed now as we speak, we will move to other dimensions, other lands! And refill our depleting supplies with other resources!" She beloved loudly, the many creatures cheered happily at the news. They still had enough resources to last them at least a year but with the ever growing fear of running out at the back of their minds it was time to start working on restocking. They used to have an indoor garden and a farming facility on one of the lower levels but that was destroyed, had gone to waste, when the Kyuubi No Kitsune had been sealed away for the first time. This was no longer the case, and they were all on the steady and slow track to rebuilding themselves completely, though you would think that they were completely built and stable at a first glance at the burrow. "But we do have a few other things that we need to work on, we need to name our land and ourselves as a majority mass." Kurama continued, murmurs and ideas went on and on as they went through every idea until they decided on one that they could all agree on. With the meeting over, they all left to go back to their separate activities while Kurama carved a new name into the rock. They were still the Kyuubi, but that was only the tittle that most would be common with, the real name, the one that now read on the stone:

The Predators 

/A:N/ Hello my fellow readers! The story is going to get really complicated from here-unless I decide to change the plot- so I want you guys to say a few other shows that this fic should go into. Here are some ideas I already have so please vote! Also I will also be going off of fandoms for other dimensions so the characters might be a bit OC

Naruto

Fullmetal Alchemist

Fairytale

MLP

Avatar

Doctor Who

Alfen Lied

Gravity Falls

Left 4 Dead

Teen Titans

Undertale

Inu Yasha

Other (be specific!)


	11. Chapter 11

Meetings

Kiba and Shino had decided to give Hinata a visit and had stopped at a floral shop before hand to get some flowers for their healing teammate. The two made their way down to the hospital whom Hinata had been delivered the previous night and quickly took notice to the now ruined street lights.

"Weren't those brand new?" Kiba asked as he walked by one of the shattered street lights, the poles were still clean and shiny, this was one of the better streets after all but it looked as if the light bulbs had all exploded, bits of broken glass littering the earth below and crunching slightly whenever stepped on, though both tried to dodge every shard while still walking.

"They were recently installed" Shino answered in his usually calm voice. The pair soon reached the hospital and were completely shocked at the chaos that was being held within the building's walls. Nurses and doctors running to and from each room and through the halls in a hurry, none knowing what to do. "Excuse me ma'am" Shino said while Kiba was currently trying to get the attention of a nearby doctor, the nurse looked at him.

"Can I help you?" She asked with forced pleasantries

"What room is Hinata Hyuuga being treated?" He asked before suddenly grabbing the Inuzuka by the hood and dragging Kiba with himself as he followed the speeding nurse through the hallway. She stopped at a door and let me and my teammate through before walking away to get back to her own business. Hinata looked at them with a small smile that grew when Akamaru jumped off of Kiba's shoulder and onto Hinata for some petting. The small dog's tail wagged happily when the girl complied and Kiba set her flowers down on the nearby table.

"How've you been Hinata?" Kiba asked

"I-I'm alright" she replied with a small stutter

"Hey, have you seen how crazy this place is today? Whats' up with that?" Kiba asked while looking at the door.

"I d-don't know Kiba-Kun" Hinata replied, her voice louder then the growing ruckus from outside the room. The volume seemed to be rising from just the other side of the door, as if a heated argument was happening just behind it, and it sounded as if someone had smashed something.

"What the heck are they doing out there!?" Kiba yelled before moving to open the door but it seems that someone else had already acted on the same idea. The door lung open, smashing into Kiba and slamming him into the wall, revealing an enraged Tsunade "Why...me..." Kiba croaked comically, Tsunade calmed down for a few seconds when she saw that her apprentice was nowhere to be seen here either.

"Where are you Shizune" Tsunade asked herself "Hinata, have you seen Shizune?" She asked louder, earning a confused look from the girl in question.

"Who?" Hinata asked and Tsunade groaned agitatedly

"Shizune! Your doctor!?" Tsunade practically yelled

"S-sorry Hokag-ge-sama, by the time I w-woke up she mu-st have been done or something..." Hinata stuttered nervously and Tsunade sighed before walking out of the room to try and find her assistant and student. She had no idea of the actions that had taken place just the night before, and she knew that she had much more work to do at the moment; she couldn't keep looking for her.

'I'll just have to have someone else look for her, I'm already almost late to a meeting with the Kazekage!' And with those thoughts in mind, the blonde quickly made her way to the meeting room.

~With Gaara and sand siblings~

Gaara, and his two siblings walked through the sad streets of Konoha, eyes wide as the three observed the village that they had just weeks ago left. The changes were alarming on the majority of streets: houses abandoned, street lights shattered, glass littering the floor, and a large amount of ninja tape (police tape) around most of the buildings. Not only was the town different but the people had all changed from bright and cheery to grim, sad, and hateful. Well, most were like that, on some of the streets that the three walked past seemed to be completely untouched and flourishing with business and goods. The sun seemed to smile at these streets and the atmosphere here was happy if not just a bit nervous but who wouldn't be in a time like this? Gaara looked around himself and at the streets, as if lost in the tremendously changed village.

'Where's the Hokage Tower again?' Gaara thought to himself and Kankuro seemed to have the same thought as him, walking up to a cheery woman who was selling flowers to another man and tapping her shoulder.

"Excuse me miss but we think we're lost." He said politely

"Oh! Where do you want to go young man?" She asked kindly

"The Hokage Tower please" Gaara answered before either of his siblings could. She pointed the way and sent them off before returning to her own business of organizing the flowers and selling them. The three enjoyed the walk until the streets became dark again and lost the cheerfulness that the earlier street seemed to hold so boldly. The mood of the streets seemed to turn on and off, up and down, randomly until the small group made it to the Hokage Tower and went to the meeting, Tsunade was a few minutes late, and all that was decided during the whole ordeal was that the Village Hidden in the Sand would help with what was going on an that was about it, five whole hours and only one thing was accomplished. Five. Whole. Hours.

"I feel sorry that you have to deal with that council on a daily basis." Gaara told Tsunade

"Oh no, it's just _lovely_ having the world's loudest and most unorganized council, just lovely." Tsunade answered sarcastically back towards the redhead, who snickered slightly before leaving, only to come back in moments later

"So um...where are we sleeping tonight?"


	12. Chapter 12

Sleepover

"So um...where are we sleeping tonight?" Gaara asked after realizing that they had no sleeping arrangement planned.

"Oh, why don't you go to a hotel or something?" Tsunade said before realizing that there weren"t many hotels here like there were on the roads, the ones that were here were far off from the center of town or closed to try to prevent anyone slipping in or out of Konoha as easily; they didn't know who was doing this, any of this, but removing places where outsiders could stay was a precarious action that the council decided was necessary to take.

"I know someone who lives in Konoha, he probably wouldn't mind housing us." Gaara said calmly in his normal tone, Tsunade looked at him surprised as she did not know that the young kage had been inside Konoha before, let alone long enough to befriend someone.

"Alrighty then, you seem to know what you're doing so goodnight." Tsunade said before walking home herself to try to get some much needed sleep, with all that had happened she hadn't slept quite soundly the previous night and was lacking slightly in the resting department.

-With Naruto  
-Naruto's POV

Didalydooda didaly doo, what to do? What to do? My species is mostly nocturnal and I've started returning to my kind's ways and habits, sleep schedule included. I hadn't slept all day though, I was busy as a bee at the beautiful creation we dubbed, "The Burrow" after its similarities with a normal fox burrow, or would it be called a den? Fox den, fox burrow, fox den, fox burrow. To be a burrow, or to be a den, that is the question! I laughed at me joke befriend looking out of my window and at the moon. I loved the night, the cool temperatures, the quietness, the peacefulness, the hunting, it was all just so beautiful. I was pulled out of my thoughts when a knock sounded on my door, then another, and then another. It was the normal three-in-one-knock routine that everybody seemed to like doing. No matter how loud some knocks are, or how quiet some are, the three sounds were always together. I walked happily to the door, I was in one of my happy, excited, energetic moods today for some reason but meh no care. I opened the door after peeping through the small peep looker thingie and saw my strawberry on the other side. I swung the door open and hid behind the now opened door before they could see me, this would be fun. None of them moved for a little bit but eventually Gaara walked inside. Once he was in my range I pounced, jumping out from behind the door and tackling my friend to the ground.

"NARUTO-SECRET-AMBUSH-ATTACK!" I yelled as I tackled the strawberry to the ground. He ended up laying on his stomach with me on his back, since I did tackle him from behind and all. I looked behind myself, moving my body so that I was now sitting on my new chair, and saw the other two siblings starring at me, one looking surprised and confused and the other one was trying very hard not to burst out laughing. "Hey Temarie! Het Kankuro! How ya been?" I asked them energetically, Kankuro finally burst out laughing while Temarie gave me an um.

"Naruto" Gaara said slowly from under me "why are you on top of me?" He asked after a few more seconds.

"Becaaauuuse your'e a comfy chair?" I joked

"Get off" he said slightly stern and I obliged

"So, whatcha doin' here anyway?" I finally asked.

"We were wondering if we could spend the night since we're in town and have no where else to go." Gaara explained

"Sure!" I exclaimed happily

"Dibs on the bed!" Temarie yelled with a sudden dash towards my lumpy box of springs. I would have warned her but wheres' the fun in that? She landed on my bed and frowned for a moment before looking around my room and settling in. She had realized that there was no other things to sleep on besides the bare old wood of my floor, and who would reasonably take the floor over the bed? She went to sleep and I grew a devilish smirk before going into one of my drawers and pulling out a black marker. Gaara looked at me with a confused look but I gave him a look that told him to trust me and then I made Temarie a cat with three whiskers per cheek. I honestly found the whiskers to be a funny joke that few would understand, it was an inside joke that only I and any extension of myself would really understand. Nodding at my work I left it the bathroom and got out a few towels, the closest thing to extra blankets I had, and handed them to my guests.

"What are these for?" Kankuro asked me

"I don't have mats to sleep on" I explained "so we'll just have to sleep on these." I finished before quickly making a pillow with my normal jacket, the orange jumpsuit that I normally wore, and I misled went to sleep after hiding the black marker. There wouldn't be any hunting tonight for any of us, but maybe, I smiled at my last thought before letting sleep consume me.

'Maybe Gaara would like to join us' 

~Gaara's POV (HA! You thought the chapter was over, didn't you?!)

I opened the door to Narutos' apartment, he had invited me during my last visit, and I saw the apartment surprisingly empty. It was devoid of any light inside the apartment and was strangely dark, the sun was still high in the sky after all and was still midday, though our home is a few hours off and by now in our village it would be rather dark. I decided to take my chances and stepped inside the unwelcoming apartment but was tackled to the ground suddenly from someone that had been behind me.

"NARUTO-SECRET-AMBUSH-ATTACK!" I heard someone yell loudly as I was tackled. Why hadn't my sand reacted? I know that I didn't have my normal sand with me but I do still have a small pouch of sand that would still be rather effective in defending and attacking. Either way it never came to his aid in avoiding the blonde or removing the blonde from his person. It was odd but I had other things to worry about, like were the heck I'm going to sleep on tonight. There was only one bed here and there wasn't any extra blankets. Temarie took. Aruto's bed and went to sleep and I saw Naruto smirk devilishly at her before drawing on her face and...was that a cat -_- that's actually kind of funny. Kankuro wa the next to fall asleep and then Naruto, I stayed up for a while and watched him confused; there was reasoning forms to be sleepy but he had none. None! He should still be wide awake at this time of day. Come to think of it, why is it so dark in here? I can see perfectly fine but...it's just...weird...I looked back at the sleeping blonde and noticed that something was different about him but...I didn't know what...I thought back to the case that this place had found themselves stuck in for a few more minutes before shutting my eyes and tried to fall asleep.

-With Kurama

Kurama looked at the opening portal before her with a sinister bring that grew, widening until it stretched her face beyond human limits. The portal still looked cloudy and had ripples going through its serface, showing the poor stability that it had at the lack of maintenance, but that was being fixed even now as she watched the ripples going through the smooth surface. She could see it, she could see the world on the other side, just sitting still and waiting for their teeth to pierce their very souls and grip them with a deadly sense of fear. She herself had yet to hunt, she was still partially sealed away, but that wouldn't last for much longer and soon they would all get to feast as much as they pleased. She lifted a single, human hand and placed it on the glass-like portal. It wasn't their normal form of transportation, they didnt' need artificial gateways, but for the time being, Kurama was grounded to this world. She suddenly snarled as a thought crossed her mind.

'This world! This pitiful, disgusting word! They think that they can just lock me away?!' She gave a sinister laugh, earning a slightly confused look from some of the other creatures who were setting up the dimensional window for their leader. It wasn't like one of their own plotting something cruel open outsiders was uncommon, it was just a bit odd for Kurama to be the one plotting, though it shouldn't have surprised them. She was hungry, and her stomach ached with a longing for both flesh and spirit. She would get to eat soon, but not quite yet. She turned away from the mirror and gave a nod to the working creatures before walking away "Soon" she muttered to herself but never continued her sentence, at least out loud. She would feast and her kind would soon enough flourish once more. With that final thought in mind the creature went to work on directing the many other creatures as they all worked to rebuild their once great home.


	13. Chapter 13

/A:N/ quick change guys, please read this. Earlier there was going to be another member of the cell Naru is in but I took an OC out and am currently planning to put a character from a different anime in, might put two in actually to fill in a gap, so if something doesn't make sense then it's because of that. Also, who likes Inuyasha and Soul Eater? Random question... 

Shikamaru looked down at one of the books he had brought with him those many days ago, they had been forbidden to return to the library for the time being after Hinata had been hurt but that didn't stop him from going back one last time and grabbing the stack. They seemed important and he didn't know why. He had been stalling in opening this book for a while now and decided to think about the recent events. It had been two weeks since the last batch of missings and there had only been one other death since then; Shizune. They had found her after one of Kiba's family's dogs had caught a wif of something and had followed his nose to find her in a alleyway, though they had to use dental records to identify who she was, or rather, used to be. Her corpse had been mangled with bone, fat, muscle, and origins being unprotected by what little skin she had left. Other then that however, nothing else had really happened. It had gotten to the point that Gaara left, the council saying that he would still help them any way he reasonably could but that was about it. Shikamaru suddenly blinked, a strange grogginess having just passed over him before ending just as fast. It only seemed to last for a mere moment and Shikamaru would have just passed it off as him dosing off or daydreaming or something but...

"Did I put this down?" He asked himself out loud while looking at the book that he had just moments ago been holding. On the cover of the book read The Demonic Rituals but that wasn't what was scaring him, no it was the cover that was scaring him. It was a tarnish peach color and it reminded him of human skin. The front cover was designed to appear as a cartoony face with sharp teeth and eyes that somehow seemed to follow his gaze. They were blood red and had no pupils, the evil-looking grin in its face seemed to be stretched on the skin-like cover with the actual texture of cold flesh. The title was engraved in a bright red that seemed to be the shade of blood on certain areas. All in all, it freaked him out. He stared at the cover for a few more seconds until finally, he opened the book, scratching his shoulder as he did so. 

-Unknown time, unknown place

Shikamaru felt as if he had died and that this dark void was purgatory, he felt heavy and it was darkness as far as his eyes could see, though that wasn't very far. After he could move around again he stood up and had to brace himself for the fall, he hadn't expected the sudden wash of unease and his forced his vomit reflex down.  
He sat still in the darkness for about another hour before he trusted himself enough to stand and move around. When he stood he started to walk forwards in a slow pace, being careful so as not to walk into any sort of a trap. If there were any, he never found them, nor did he find a wall. He just walked as far as he could until the lights flashed on, flooding him and every single one of his senses with every sudden change. The air was dryer, cleaner, and smelt plain rather than the almost moldy air that had surrounded him not to long ago. A few feet before him was a single, minty blue line. He heard the sound of something moving and looked behind himself to see that the far wall had started moving but this did not bother him much, the wall was too far away to disturb him for a while and he had time to observe his surroundings. He looked down at the pure white floor and felt it, finding that it was neither cold or hot, the light only warmed it to a very little degree but kept the room at a constant temperature. He looked at the walls and found that they were the same, he then walked over to the line and crouched down to touch it, touching the line to find that it was a little bit warmer then the rest of the area.  
Nothing had happened when he only touched the line but the moment he went over it with more of his arm the entire room changed to a much thinner hallway. It held that same amount of fluorescent brightness but a single wooden door practically popped out through when compared to the near annoying whiteness. It's dark wood was such a contrast to the smooth walls, it was honesty an odd sight. There were no hinges that connected the door to the nonexistent frame but the door seemed to deny physics and would not budge or yield to his desire to open. He had tried turning the handle, knocking, kicking the door down, and then he tried walking to the other side of the hallway. There was nothing on the other other then a colorless, fluorescent white wall. Shikamaru finally grew frustrated and tried kicking the wall down and let out a cuss, no longer saying his characteristic troublesome, and the door suddenly gave way from the other side of the hall with a small click. Shikamaru turned around to fact the door and was just in time to see it swing itself open wide for him to enter

"This is so troublesome" Shikamaru said to himself before entering. The room was a bit on the dark side, a nice change from the pure black and pure white, but Shikamaru quickly found a light switch on the desk, a bit of a wired place for the lights to be at honestly. He sat down and saw that there was a screen just a bit above his head and in front of him was a window that was dark on the other side. He flipped the switch and let the lights rid the room of all major darkness to let him see that the room had a pineapple and cloud vibe in its decoration themes. The wall paper had pineapples and the calling was filled with a fake blue sky and painted-on clouds that had some actually good artwork. The shading was almost spot on with a realistic design while the wall paper was more cartoony. There was a pair of head sets on the desk that seemed to appear out of nowhere near for whatever reason there was a pineapple top on the center-most top and a cartoony cloud on each side. The room looked neither nice or bad, being both cheesy and dull but with flare to spare. It was almost funny if it weren't for Shikamaru's current situation. The screen suddenly flashed to life and there on the other side if the screen sat a golden haired boy wearing a red sweatshirt. Like Shikamaru his hair was in a pony tale, though a low one, and his hair was long enough for him to be mistaken for a guy. He looked bored and slightly annoyed for a minute and silence rained as he fiddle with his hair, he wasn't used to it being in a pony tale after all and this hairdo slightly annoyed him.

-Shikamaru's POV

" _Hello, you're here to play a game or test or some shit like that._ " The boy said from the other side of the screen, still fiddling with his hair " _I'm here for introductions but this ain't my job anymore so once I do the basics I'll leave it up to you k?._ "The other person asked, starting out annoyed and ending in a more pleasant tone but the last part didn't seem to be directed towards me, and from the corner of my eye I saw something move in the other side of the darkened window.

'Is there someone in there?' I asked myself while moving around a bit to try to get a better angle, normally this much movement would be troublesome but I can't afford to be lazy right now: I don't have any chakra, I don't know where I am, I don't know how long I've been here, I don't know if help is on the way, and I don't know what these guys have planned fro me, this is not the time to be lazy. I decided and saw whatever was on the other side move again, this time until it was a bit closer to me. It took me a moment to realize that the other person had stopped talking and was looking at me with curious eyes.

"... _What are you doing?_ " He asked me after a minute, his voice had lost the annoyed and bored tone and with him actually looking at me, really looking at me, I had a clear view at his slightly cat like golden eyes that almost seemed human, eyes that for a mere five seconds held interest and innocents. But then those few seconds ended and his eyes became much more like feline slits before becoming a bit more round again and he closed his eyes once more, using his elbow to prop up his head. All in all he looked more bored than annoyed. " _Time to get this over with. Here are the rules: we will ask you some questions and then you may go, do not refuse to answer, and don't lie to us._ " Why was he acting like there was someone else here? My eyes squinted a bit to try to see in the dark room before me and through the glass. " _Question one; what's your name_ " he was back to demanding things again but at least it doesn't,t look like he knows who I am so...that means they weren't targeting me.

"Shikamaru Nara" I replied and the boy stared at me for a few mere seconds before nodding and giving me a strange look.

" _Your first name is Nara? Kinda weird but-_ " he didn't really think that did he -_-

"Nara is my last name" I interrupted in my own annoyed tone

"... _sorry? But..._ " he flipped through a few pieces of paper " _I thought your world was all sharing in Japanese culture, kinda weird for a whole dimension, so I just assumed that you all put your last name first_." His tone was actually apologetic and sincere, but I still had no idea what he was talking about. I have seen maps and there was no where called Japan, at least not in the area that our maps showed.

"Some do, some don't. My family doesn't do that." I replied and he wrote something down

" _Ya get that?_ " The boy asked no one in particular and seemed to get an answer; he started talking again. " _Alrighty then, I'll go and you can take over. Call me if you need me."_ And with that, the only other person here left, the screen turning off and leaving me in semi darkness. Though that only lasted for so long before the lights turned on and, to my horror, Naruto sat before me on the other side if the screen.

"Heya Shik!" Naruto yelled excitedly, now I was confused.

"Naruto, where are we?!" I asked in hope that this was my rescue but the words that the other boy had used made it seem like that wasn't what was going to happen. The look he was now giving me was one that practically screened that he felt hurt by my words and tone, even though my words were practically nothing. Had I said something wrong? "where are the others?!" I asked, he still hadn't answered my first question and I realized that I would have take another route to my freedom. I forced myself to calm down, I can do this. "...Naruto" I tried as calmly and even as I could, he looked at me with those hurt eyes as if I had let him down on something "...what am I doing here?" I asked in a more polite tone, he seemed to get back his energy.

"So glad you asked Shik! Askin' the big questions!" Yep, he was good again; if Naruto knew what was going on then he could get me out. "You're here to take a survey but I think Ed already told you that." So that was the boy's name, at least that troublesome piece is figured out "but all you really have to do is answer some questions for me honestly and then you'll be free to go! Or you could stick around and play with me cuz I'm a little bored" Naruto continued

"Maybe later Naruto" I said slowly, I didn't want to risk upsetting him again, I probably couldn't afford upsetting him again. "Now maybe we can get these questions done? What do you want to know?" He won't ask me anything confidential, he's too loyal to Konoha for that, this is all just some big joke. I know that Naruto is a prankster and this has his name all over it! Troublesome blonde...stealing all of my chakra...kidnaping me...this has to be a prank

"Ok! Question number one..." Naruto looked at the piece of paper before him for a second to check something "I want ya to type down your family system down on the laptop." He said before gesturing to the screen that sat next to me, the screen that hadn't,t been there mere moments ago. The screen turned to black to a mechanical white and my hands moved to their own accord to type things, it was as if they were a separate part of myself now and I didn't have any control of them as they typed random facts about my clan, some random and rather normal, and some that were meant to be a secret like our clan style jutsus. I stared at Naruto as my hands moved on their own and it seemed that he was doing something else now, as if he had gotten bored. "Ok, while you're doing that stuff we can continue." He said after a few more silent minutes. How Naruto expected me to do both at once was a mystery to me bu- "What do you think about the case about the hunts?" I was interrupted by Naruto, his eye were looking at me with no kindness, they were blue pools of animalistic curiosity but his words still sunk in.

"The hunts?" What was he talking about?

"You know, the hunts!?" He said a bit louder and it looked as if someone was opening a door on the other side of the screen, at least if the light that flooded the space was anything to go by.

"They call them murders Naru" another voice said from behind the blonde, a feminine, familiar voice that I knew I had heard before but I couldn't place it. I started moving again to try to see the new person, I couldn't see her and it was so troublesome that I was even in this situation to begin with

"Oh, thanks Oneechan" Naruto replied thankfully and I could see the other person ruffle his hair playfully "oh! Say hi to my friend. Shik, this is my older sister...or rather half sister...or the sister to my half brother..." he trailed off and the other person came into view, and something clicked in my mind. The other person was the girl from the place Naruto had taken us to-though that was a while ago-it's hard to forget a face like that or those golden eyes.

"Hello Shik, how are you enjoying being Naruto's first?" Ok, I know that there was a joke in there somewhere... "be gentle with him." She continued with a mischievous grin, giving me a chance to see the razors and fangs that were her teeth. That was when I got the joke and face palmed, Naruto gave us a confused look

"I don't get it" he said innocently and the girl snickered

"Good" was all she said before eyeing me "do you like this boy? You said he was your friend but...do you think he has potential?" She asked and our calculating eyes met, I honestly had to look away from those eyes. It was almost as if they could se into my very soul and she was giving me a creepy feeling.

"Yeah! Shik is crazy good at strategy and stuff and is a great fighter when he actually puts in the effort!" Naruto responded excitedly and I blinked at the praise. What were they planning?

"He might be a bit to young to safely edit him, he has to be a bit older before we can safely bring him in, especially with our current supplies." She said, Naruto nodded in agreement before giving her puppy eyes

"Can you pleeeeaaaase get us both some ramen? It's great here and I want Shik' to try it" he asked in a pleading voice, she rolled her eyes before leaving the room to both me and Naruto, something else clicked again and a chill went up my spine as a eery feeling entered my part of the room.

"Naruto, earlier you said something about hunts, right? Did you mean the cluster of murders that happened a while ago?" I asked uncertain of my safety, he nodded and it was as if my blood had run cold "Do-do you know anything about what happened?" I asked with a small stutter, he was grinning now, a wide, happy grin. "Do you know who did it?" I asked again and he nodded again "who?" I asked

"We-" he gestured to all around him "-did it" I couldn't believe this, this prank had gone too far!

"Haha, very funny Narut-o" I said with another stutter

"Are you done?" He suddenly asked me "you stopped typing so I can only assume that you are." He continued and I nodded in a slightly absent manner, I might be able to get information from this if I play my cards right.


	14. Chapter 14

-No one's POV

Naruto suddenly clapped his hands together  
"Ok! Then onto the next question!" He said excitedly "Wha-" Shikamaru suddenly interrupted him

"Why don't we take turns with the questions?" He asked, earning an uncertain look from the blonde.

"I don't know, that isn't how this normally goes...I think..." Naruto said slowly and Shikamaru gave him what he hoped was a reassuring look.

"Since when do you roll the normal rules?" He asked "plus, this way should be..." he paused for a moment to find the proper word "fun...you said you wanted to play, right?" Shikamaru asked, hoping that he could try to control the situation a bit, Naruto looked excited

"Yes! That sounds fun!" Naruto said in a childish manner "but first" his eyes glowed for a few seconds and the scenery changed to a nicer one, it was a shady meadow with a table and a light that seemed to shine from nowhere, bright enough to make the sun unnecessary. The only thing that screamed unnatural was the lone door that stuck into the ground a few feet behind Naruto, a door that led to the real world. Shikamaru looked behind himself and saw a door, the same one he had come from. There was a checkers board on the table that they were both sitting at and Naruto moved a piece to the side, Shikamaru quickly caught on and moved a piece, though he wasn't paying much attention to the game.

"I'll ask the first question; did you really do it?" Shikamaru asked

"Ya need to be more specific" Naruto said while moving another piece, it made a small clock noise on the hard-wood board.

"The mur-hunts" Shikamaru replied, having to correct his wording so that he would be understood by the blonde. He moved another piece

"I participated in it all but no, I didn't do it by myself." Naruto answered while jumping a piece and smirking to himself proudly "but I kinda doubt that we're done" he added, earning a shocked look from Shikamaru on both of the the things the blonde was saying. Even with the horror he felt, he still knew to keep a cool head for this situation if he wanted to get out alive.

"What do you mean that you aren't done?" Shikamaru asked slowly

"Well, last I heard Konoha isn't finished with us just yet, we don't exactly have that many resources anymore so you guys are our resources for now." Naruto replied while moving another piece, he was talking almost absently as he thought about how to beat the brunette in the game.

"Are you going to kill me?" Shikamaru asked after a while, the result was one Naruto one the ground, laughing as if he had just been told the most hilarious joke in the world. Then he suddenly looked at Shikamaru when he realized that he wasn't laughing with him

"Oh...you're serious?" Naruto asked to make sure si he would be jumping to conclusions "Nope! Your'e here because you know stuff and you already gave us all the info we needed so...you're really free to go whenever you feel like it..." Naruto trailed off as a door opened behind Shikamaru, a door that led him straight to his bedroom "...though I would like it if you stayed..." Naruto added quietly. Shikamaru was about to jump through the door when he realized that if he stayed for just a little while longer he could get more information and maybe, just maybe, get his childhood friend away from all of this. Shikamaru didn't,t say anything as he moved his piece, signaling his decision.

"It's troublesome but I might as well finish the game." He said and saw the happiness his words brought to his old friend

"This'll be fun ya know!" Naruto said happily, it wasn't often that he got to spend time with normal people that actually knew about him, and while he loved his family; he did want to hang out with someone else every now and then. Mostly all that they had been doing in the Burrow was work too and so the only real fun he ever got to have was in the hunts.

"So Naruto, why are you doing this, the hunts I mean." Shikamaru said rather then asked, his acting skills weren't the best and he was busy trying to keep a straight face, especially when the word 'hunt' rolled past his tongue and making him feel rather foul for dehumanizing their deaths by calling the event as one would a normal hunt. Naruto didn't seem to notice though as he jumped another piece. Shikamaru hadn't jumped any yet as he was trying to make the game as slow as possible to try to talk Naruto out of his current life choice.

"The same reason anyone else would hunt; avoid hunger." Naruto replied, though his tone had lost just a little bit of its joyfulness.

"S-so you're a cannibal?!" Shikamaru yelled in horror, Naruto looked at him with a sharpened gaze, eyes turned to slits.

"Cannibalism is when you eat one of your own kind, and they were all human." Naruto stated in a calm tone

"But you are human too!" Shikamaru yelled, slamming his hands in the table. Naruto didn't reply for a few long moments and there was nothing but silence, Shikamaru thought that Naruto had realized what he had done, that he would stop this madness, but the blonde suddenly lifted his head and gazed at Shikamaru with a single, slitted eye. There was no emotion in what Shikamaru could see and Naruto tilted his head, covering his other eye even more and it glowed from behind his bangs.

"You are wrong" an unidentifiable emotion slipped in the blonde's voice slightly as he spoke "I am not human, I am a demon." Naruto said lowly, the look in his eye remaining for a long time and silence rained completely, neither moving a muscle. Nothing moved until the door behind Naruto opened and the girl from before entered with two steaming bowls.

"Sorry that took so long Naru." She said while placing the two bowls in front of their future consumers "but it is busy hour, the tunneling shifts just switched." She continued, though she didn't notice that he wasn't listening to her, the two boys were still staring at one another. Nightingale sighed before suddenly clapping loudly, earning a slight jump from both as the silent staring contest was tied for a loose. "Eat up" she said sweetly before leaving the strange room. Naruto turned his eyes towards his food before suddenly digging in happily. Shikamaru was stunned at something he had noticed, something he knew he saw.

"Ya going ta eat?" Naruto asked before pointing towards the bowl before Shikamaru, who slowly reached out to grab the soupy meal.

'Did that really just happen? Why did his eyes do that...thing...how is it even physically possible for eyes to do that? This is so troublesome trying to figure out...how did his eyes move into cat-like ones and then turn into ovals?' He grabbed the chopsticks that had been handed to him and ate the meal "thanks" he said quietly "but...you're eating right now...so why don't you just eat normally? I mean, I have seen you eat ramen before" Shikamaru said, questioning the logic of Naruto's earlier and brief explanation

"It's a different kind of hunger, it's one that...normal food doesn't help at all" Naruto said calmly "our metabolism can go from slow to speedy when it comes to digesting that sort of stuff though so one person can normally last for a good while." He continued

"When did you start doing this?" Shikamaru asked 'he couldn't have been doing this for too long, I would have noticed by now if he did.' He thought

"I started when the first murder happened, that's a murder since it wasn't a group hunt" Naruto said before going into an explaining tone

"What can you possibly gain from eating others that you can't from the ramen you just ate?!" Shikamaru demanded

"It's hard to explain...I don,t understand it all exactly, but I do know that it has something to do with eating souls or spirits or something like that." Naruto said and Shikamaru looked down at his hands, how had he not noticed this before? Though, when he looked back, he still didn't see any clue or sign of the things Naruto said he had done.

"You know that this is wrong...right?" Shikamaru tried while trying to make sure that his friend was still in there through the madness that he believed surrounded his soul

"You only think that it's wrong because it's your own species being hunted and killed for food, you all don,t really give much of a damn about any other species but if we ever go out for a bite then there's suddenly a huge problem!" A new voice said, it wasn't the voice of the blonde haired girl from before, it wasn't Nightingale, but it was still rather familiar. Shikamaru turned and saw both the blonde from before and the blonde from behind the screen.

"Hi Ed!" Naruto said while waving his arm excitedly, emotion suddenly returning and any negative emotion instantly replaced with excitement. The now named Ed waved back in a slight lazy manner, though he seemed to lack the over all appearance of a lazy person like Shikamaru.

"How's it going?" Ed asked before looking at the scene before him. This wasn't at all what it was like when he did it, but then again he never really liked working behind a desk.

"It's going great! We finished a while ago and he decided to stay here with me to play, wanna join?" Naruto asked while patting the spot next to him. Edward shrugged and went to sit next to his half sibling

"Sorry Naru but I only came for the bowls and for a bit of early editing." Nightingale said while walking towards Shikamaru, Edward suddenly appeared behind said brunette and grabbed his arms so that he couldn't move. Nightingale took out a small vile of clear liquid and carefully put it inside of a small needle. "I normally get permission or are asked to do this but for Naru I'll let this slide." She said before manipulating Shikamaru's shirt to expose one of his shoulders and she started putting alcohol on the area to clean it, then she slipped the needle into the struggling boy's shoulder muscle before emptying the vile and removing the needle quickly. "There, all done" she said calmly while a dizzy Shikamaru suddenly felt light headed. Edward carefully laid him done on the ground before walking over him and taking his place on the checkers board. He moved a piece and the two played there game, it ending with Edward winning quickly. Shikamaru forced himself up from his spot on the ground and walked towards the closed door of freedom.

"Bye Shik!" Naruto yelled from behind him and Shikamaru walked trough the door quickly, winding up in the chair he had last sat in. His head felt a bit funny and he felt a bit dazed.

"Did I put this down?" He asked himself out loud before lifting the nearby book that he had just holding just moments ago, or at least what felt like just moments ago. He looked down into the cover that seemed to grin at him before he finished his stalling and opened to the first page.


	15. Chapter 15

Bitterness of Betrayel

/A:N/ Y-Y no one is reading this story anymore U_U comment moda fuckas or suffer Naru's wrath. On a separate and more serious note, this chapter is going to (hopefully) explain a few things. This story is not supposed to be only about blood and gore (though I do love those chapters?) and I have been planning on making this story a bunch of sequels, this is my main story and it does crossover with multiple other fandoms, though I might just continue this one a bunch with a few sequels equally long when this one gets too long for my taste. I am still doing my other fics though, I just wanted to let you guys know. NOW ENJOY! 

Naruto smiled brightly as he thought of what had just happened. One of his best friends could eventually join them, though it wouldn't happen for a few years or so due to a few issues. The biggest one is the fact that Kurama needed to agree with the new arrival but other then that the other issues were all about storage and supplies issues. This thought brought him back to what his adoptive mother had just decreed, Konoha had supplied them with as much as they could. The predators did know not to deplete the village of its population, and they had already gone a bit overboard already on its people. No, the village was used up to its limit for now. It was time to find other resources for them all. Kurama was currently busy with the exits and entrances to the Burrow, she decided that converting almost all of them into portals would be the best decision after the events that caused their downfall. Visitors would not be aloud to roam freely, visitors could no longer mingle with their kin, visitors were no longer allowed. Naruto furrowed his brow as he read over his kind's history a bit more and felt a new wave of hate form in the pit of his stomach. Visitors must be killed on sight now, anyone who comes without their knowledge or without them allowing it were no longer visitors; they were enemies meant to be killed. The Predators learned from their past mistakes and refuse to let them happen again. Naruto glared at the content of the most recent page again before making a huffing noise and slamming it shut, putting it back on the shelf before leaving the archives.

"I guess I should go help out with the construction..." he thought to himself before feeling an angry growl from his stomachs. He patted his empty stomach before sighing and leaving to help his kin.

~With Kurama~

Kurama twitched as she felt a pang of hunger from one of her many kits and sighed. She herself didn't have the hunger of live flesh, that was one of the major benefits of being a Demon Lord, but she always knew when her children hungered. Until they were stabilized, until their HOME was stabilized, her children would have to feed on the living to quench's their hunger. She had to fuse her energy with the maze like den, every single rock would eventually be a part of her, and she had to sink the portals to her as well.

"I also need to strengthen the mental connection between my children and me." She said aloud to herself. Normally she would be able to satisfy their hunger but for now she had to focus her energies on their once great home. She hated putting her kits through this, and she hated the people that did this to them even more. She let out a growl but realized that she wasn't alone, she still had some workers fixing the old portals and adding new ones nearby.

"Is something wrong Malady?" A dark brown creature asked. She was some mix of a wolf and a cat, her form was slender but had most of the large-cat-family-muscles and probably did a better job of climbing then running. Her fur had light green highlights that reminded Kurama of an average cat and her eyes seemed to glow slightly.

"No, nothing is wrong. I was just thinking of something." She said reassuringly. It wasn't anything new to her to be called something like that by her kits, most of them didn't call her mom or Kaasan after all. Though this particular creature didn't seem to be one of her adoptive children, this one seemed to be from one of the other tailed beast's clans, the Second Clan. 'That's right' Kurama thought to herself 'my younger sister lent us some helpers to assist the restoration of our home.' She realized

"Well it would be wise to direct your attention towards the current gap between worlds, you would not wish for it to spread in ways unwanted, would you?" She said, Kurama nodded and directed her attention towards the many portals currently being opened, a decent number of them couldn't travel through dimensions without help after all but still wanted to go out every now and then for various reasons. What kind of ruler would she be if she wasn't able to provide that at the very least? She kept her focus on the energy that flowed through her every fiber and tried to ignore the pang of guilt whenever she felt the hunger of her kin. She needed to focus on the portals, she needed to fix their home, and she refused to acknowledge the warm fulfillment of her own energy that resided in her stomach. Once she was done with this, she could return to her normal duties and take revenge on those that betrayed her, that betrayed them all.

~With Ed~

Ed gave a sigh as his stomachs growled hungrily. He wasn't in the Burrow right now, he had finished his work for the rest of the week and had decided to take a look at how things were going in his original dimension. He looked at the grass beneath him and took in its every difference with the grass of other worlds. He crouched down and felt the bright green plants for a few moments before standing up again and moving toward the dirt rode. His hood was pulled up and shadowed his face, no one would be able to tell it was him. It wasn't his usual red jacket, that thing was too noticeable for the moment and would track unwanted attention from his old peers, this one was a tan an a bit scratchy. It was not something that his old friends would ever see him in but here he is, wearing a scratchy jacket that made him look like a homeless freeloader(no offense to them) it was simple, easy disguise. He walked to the tarnished remains of his old house and looked at it, staring emptily at the once beautiful and homey house. When he was younger, he and his brother had burnt it to nothingness as a sign of their commitment. He had committed his every breathing, waking, conscious monument to trying to fix them both. His clenched his hands into tight fists. He did everything to him.

'I gave up my childhood for him, gave up my freedom for him, became a fucking dog on a chain for him, pretended to be human for him.' He thought bitterly, a small bit of blood leaking from the broken skin where his claws had torn through "And I was betrayed by him"


	16. Chapter 16

Sleep

Ed lifted his hand, the one that had once been stolen from him, and observed the small wound. They weren't deep enough for the need of stitches and were already healing, he lifted his hand and licked the wound lightly to clean it of blood and any possible venom he might have accidentally leaked. He stared at his hand for a few more minutes before lowering it and repeating the process with his other hand until he was satisfied that both body parts were safe from infection. Demon saliva a could do many things, from thinking blood to cleaning, and his could heal. With the extra boast of his licks his wound was healed in no time. He had returned to staring at his ruined childhood but something, of someone, interrupted him. He had not seen nor heard her coming, he had been too deep in thought for that. An old woman whom he had known since he had first pretended to be human had come up from the path and had taken notice of him and had walked up to him from behind.

"Hello young man, can I help you?" She asked, reaching a hand out and taping the boy's shoulder lightly and snapping him out of his train of thought.

"Huh?!" He asked loudly when he realized he wasn't alone, the woman furrowed her brow in worry at him.

"Are you alright?" She asked worriedly and the boy nodded his head, something about him was familiar, she couldn't put her finger on it but she could tell that this boy was not normal. 'Where have I seen him before?' She wondered silently. She was worried about this person, he seemed to be too young to be traveling around randomly and it was going to get dark soon. She didn't think he lived in the area, other wise she would have known who he was. 'He must be homeless, poor lad." She decided but was still unable to shake the familiarity of the other person. "Do you have a place to stay?" She asked. He didn't answer at first but nodded. He didn't have a place in this world anymore so it wasn't a lie, that is what he told himself as he follows her to the familiar building.

"You can stay for now and sleep in my granddaughter's old room, she doesn't stay here much anymore anyway." She said, more to herself then her guest "My name is Pinako" she said as she opened the front door and entered the house. She expected her guest to tell her his name but he seemed hesitant to tell her it, either that or he just didn't know that she wanted him to tell her it. "What is your name? If your'e staying here then I might as well know who I'm hosing." She proved slightly. Silence met her again, to be broken a few moments later by the hooded figure.

"Don't you recognize me, Granny?" He asked. That voice. That was what revealed to the old woman who the person was.

"EDWARD?!"

-Wrokbell Residence

Pinako Rockbell and Edward Elric sat a crossed from each other at the dining room table. The now uncloaked Edward pet the dog that sat just next to him on the floor.

"So you're alive after all huh?" She asked, testing the information the younger of the two siblings had given her

"Yep" Ed responded "So where's Winry anyway? It doesn't look like she' been here for a while." He noted and glanced at the room.

"She's still in the auto mail capital of the world to practice under a professional." Pinako said calmly, though it was obvious that she was missing her granddaughter greatly. She was confused about something, Al had told her that Edward had died three years ago, there was even a grave for him. It was empty since the body was never recovered but it was still a grave no less. On top of that it looked like Edward had not aged a day, though he did seem to look slightly different in a few ways that Pinako's aged eyesight couldn't pinpoint perfectly.

"Good for her" Edward said with a slightly forced smile "Do you know if she and Al are still..." he trailed off

"Yes" Pinako replied with a distant smile "Those two lovebirds are reaching their anniversary in a few days actually." She never took notice that Edward had stopped petting Den, and she never took notice of the low growling that Ed had started quietly emitting. He stood up suddenly and pushed his chair in.

"Good night granny, I'm leaving early in the morning so I should probably go to sleep now." He said before turning around to leave. "Oh and by the way-" he looked back over his shoulder, his eyes becoming cold and pupils turning into slits "-it would be wise not to tell anyone that I was here."

The golden-blonde's words sunk in Pinako's mind for a short periods of time before she herself went to sleep. Nothing woke her, but that didn't mean that nothing was there with her. About three hours after she went to sleep a dark figure appeared inches before her, hungry eyes staring at her with very little restraint to keep the primal instincts at bay from digging into the meal before him. He stood for about an hour before shaking his head to clear it and rushing out silently.

-Morning  
Pinako hadn't truly realized it until she went up to wake him up for breakfast to find that Ed was no where to be seen, the only real sign that he had ever actually been there being the slightly messy bedsheets and blankets, he had left at sunrise.

-With Ed  
Edward looked at the small town he had once left and was once again leaving. He almost wanted to stay longer to see his old friends, even if they didn't' know that it was him, but he had temptations that where scratching at the corner of his mind even now. Even if he could forgive them, he just couldn't stand to be around them, not like this. The pain in his stomach was killing him and the desire of human flesh had decided to make itself known in any way possible. He feared that if he had stayed any longer then he would have their blood on his hands. His slitted eyes glanced at the country-side town one last time before disappearing in a mild flash of golden light. He was an inter dimensional being and could travel through almost any plain of existence with ease, a fact that made him respected greatly by his fellow kind, and hoped that this ability could assist his family's current issue. Different worlds mean that they could eat almost anyone without directly effecting their own dimensions, and that fact was rather key to the safety of the once large network of mostly demonic creatures. He hoped that his hunger would be settled soon as it was beginning to cloud his thoughts and make his sharp mind dull, he knew that he wouldn't be of much use to anything short of satisfying his hunger in a fare,y short periods of time. He only had a few more days before his mind would be completely dulled to nothing other then the savage desire of flesh and blood. He had almost eaten Pinako, a fact that almost horrified him in a way that he felt he should be numb too.

'I've killed before' he told himself 'ripped humans apart with no mercy or remorse. So why do I feel so bad about all most killing another one? I didn't even actually go through with it or anything but...but then why do I feel like I did something wrong?' He questioned himself as he phased through the separate worlds. Every single one was different and unique, the ways to get to them nothing equally unique as well. For him it was normally just going through his gate, he had become one with it completely after all, and then carefully navigate through the void-like spaces between every plane of existence. Once he made it to his other dimension, or rather to the Burrow since it was almost in between dimensions while being its own dimension at the same time, he stretched his arms above his head before heading to his room, he was still only tired and felt himself become sleepier as every moment passed. By the time he had gotten to his den he was practically dead on his feet, though they were actually paws now, and he collapsed in his bed instantly. He didn't understand why, nor did he care. All he knew was that closing his eyes felt much better then forcing them open and that the painful hunger seemed to dull as his mind drifted off into the warm darkness that surrounded him. His breathing evened in record time, and if he had been in the mind to think it through, he would have noticed that the creatures that had been on patrol were not his siblings. He would have noticed that the passages were void of any others. He would have noticed that everyone else's signatures were pulsing in their dens rather than only half of them while the others worked. And as they all slept, the pain numbed away.


	17. Chapter 17

Tardy

/A:N/ Hey guys! I can' believe that I almost forgot that Sasuke was gone in this fic, almost put him in it...had to edit him out...but I have a question for you people: do any of you want Sasuke to come back? Anyone want Itachi to figure out a way? I actually do have a way for that to happen in the plot but that's, for you people to decided! If no one votes then I'll do whatever the hell I want to based on the plot. Limited time offer people, want some Sasuke? Tell me!

-A few hours earlier  
-With Naruto

Naruto growled as he scratched at whatever was nearest to him, his bed, and felt his claws dig into the cloth like a knife through warm butter. His entire apartment was covered in deep scratches wall to wall, anything and everything was marked with deep scratch marks. He looked down at his bed again, it was destroyed. His pillow had been torn and chewed to pieces of cloth and old feathers which littered the room, som pieces still in the air and slowly falling to the ground below. His stomach growled, sending small, intense waves of pain through his body, and he growled again. They weren't allowed to eat anyone else in Konoha due to the fact that they had gotten rid of two thirds of the population. They knew better then to eat them all, they didn't want genocide of the Will of Fire. With another painful growl, Naruto lifted his arm up to meet his face and bit down. Ignoring the immediate pain, he ripped off the piece of flesh and chewed lightly, leaving a large bite mark out of the flesh and muscle. The flesh did nothing to rid him of the hunger, it only made it worse. Demon flesh is harder to digest then human flesh, same thing with souls. Naruto groaned at the pain in his stomach and arm. There was a gasp from inside of Naruto's mind and a flash of red light

 **"What are you doing?!"** Kurama screeched as she looked at his arm in horror. This problem was getting out of hand and fast. Her eyes glowed and Naruto felt like barfing, his mouth opened and the chunk of his own flesh came out, glowing a bright red color. Kurama took the barely-chewed flesh and levitated it to where it belonged. It melted into the bite and fixed itself with no noticeable scaring, Kurama sighed deeply as she picked up her kit and teleported back into the Burrow. She couldn't let them continue to do this to themselves, she had to do something and fast. An idea struck her and she flooded the pipelines that connected her to her many kits with chakra. This chakra was designed to put them to sleep until she sends them a different formula of the energy, plus it would dull the hunger and prevent it from growing while they slept. It would give her enough time to think up a solution for this, she already had some ideas too.

Kurama sighed as she set Naruto on his bed, he was sound asleep. She had to go from the back door due to her not having any wings to fly out from the high level, every single one of these rooms were connected to a tunnel that connected to every single other one, a very confusing tunnel if you were not one of them, and she was able to navigate the tunnels with ease. When she got to the large empty area of the Burrow she could see that all her kits had done as she thought; they were all going to their den to rest, none of them knowing that they would not wake from their sleep for some time. None of them had any truly important work at the time, she had only given them very small jobs to do and stopped the interaction with human beings a while ago to prevent any accidents. Though this was true she had work to do, lots and lots of work. She had to cut the ties with humans to her darlings and make it seem like none of them had ever existed. Next she had to fuse the walls with her energy, construction would go much faster if she did that faster, and she had to view he destruction of the tunnels that led to the outside worlds and change them to portals. She also had to find a new food source for her kits, her energy would not be enough at this point, and she had to do it fast. The food source had to be large enough for them all and could NOT be a in the territory of any other demon clan. With another sigh, Kurama returned to work.

-With Kakashi

Kakashi looked at his one student with a slightly annoyed as his record of "longest period of being tardy" was broken by his third student who has now been late for three hours longer then himself, which made him eight hours late to today's mission. Kakashi sighed as his timer beeped and he wrote something down on a small notebook.

"Alright Naruto, point taken. You can come out now!" He said loud enough for the supposedly hiding blonde to hear. He had assumed that this was all just some joke on himself, it was April 1st after all, so when no one actually came out to take the credit he was rather confused. "Naruto?" He asked again in the same volume

"Sensei, I don't think Naruto is here..." Sakura said surprisingly quiet. She had become a lot less loud and rude after the death of her mother and had actually taken to taking her practice more seriously. Kakashi wouldn't be all that surprised if the poor girl was in depression after the recent suicide of her father. She lived with Ino now, the two got along greatly without their past crush around to tear them apart and they had formed a powerful bond. Kakashi sighed as he pocketed the notebook and clock and motioned for the pinkett to follow him.

"Then we need to go get him, this is going be our first mission in over a month and it is best to do it as a team." He said in his usual lazy tone. She nodded and the two headed down to the darker part of Konoha. The two soon made it to the apartment complex and made it up to the blonde's door, Kakashi knocked on the door three times.

"Naruto? Did you over sleep or something? We have a mission to get to." Kakashi yelled in a talking tone. No answer. No shout of surprise or any sound emitted from the building. Kakashi nicked three more times to no answer.

"Naruto hasn't pulled any pranks today." Sakura said suddenly with worry still in her voice. Kakashi's eyes narrowed slightly

'Now that I think about it, I haven't heard of any recent pranks from Naruto specifically. This is cause for worry, he might have stopped prancing people on a daily basis but the "Fox King of Pranks" would never pass a good excuse to pull a prank or two.' Kakashi thought to himself, nocking on the door one last time before smashing the door down and looking in. It had opened easier then he had thought it would, meaning that it hadn't been locked. His eyes widened at the sight of the inside of the small apartment. "Sakura" he said, gaining the attention of his remaining student "Go get Tsunade"

-twenty minutes later

Tsunade looked at the gashes that coated the inside of her favorite gaki's apartment with horror. She had thought that the attacks had stopped, that there would be no more need for worry, but it seemed that she was wrong. There was very little blood found; a small puddle that had stained the destroyed blankets on the ruined bed, but the destruction made it clear that she would never see Naruto again. Her eyes became wet and she took a shaky breath, trying not to collapse right here and now with grief. She failed at this attempt and fell to the floor as tears spilt from her eyes more then she had ever known possible.

"H-He's gone" she whimpered aloud 'and he's never coming back' Ibiki let her cry and Anko looked at her in pity, she herself had loved the brat as well but knew that there was nothing she could truly do, she knew there was no use in crying over something she couldn't change.

"The best we can do is to make sure that this never happens again." She said aloud for her coworkers and leader to hear "he wouldn't want us to mourn so stop crying, he would hate to see you like this." She said and almost winced at how cold the words felt on her tongue but knew that they needed to be heard.

"Anko!" Ibiki said in surprise

"If you want to honor him then help make this village stronger, if not for us all then for him." She said a bit quieter and Tsunade nodded before slowly standing and wiping her tears away. With that done, they all went to work on making it official that Uzumaki Naruto was dead.


	18. Chapter 18

Feeding Frenzy

Kurama smiled in sick excitement as her work was finally finished, or rather, the more immediately important one. She had chosen three realms perfect for her kits to feast on, she couldn't help but feel as thrilled as a child on Christmas at the moment as she flooded the system with the "Wake Up" formula of chakra. Soon they would all arise and soon things would get back on track. With an excited grin, she watched as they slowly began to poke their many heads out of their separate holes to see her, they did always seem to know when she wanted to tell them so,etching after all. She wasn't in her more human form, instead of that she was in her all out demon form, a gigantic nine tailed fox. She caught the eye of one of them and gave him a small smile, though it went on as a terrifying show of teeth large enough to easily tear into a whale with minimum difficulty. The much smaller demon smiled back at her, unsure of the cause of the current meeting.

Once Kurama felt that all of them were present she cleared her throat and began to talk, though how such sound was possible with her lack of perfectly functional lips was beyond her, and she gave them all a small speech of their recent sacrifices and loyalty to her during the dark time that had been passing.

By the time the speech had finished, it was plain to the many demonic creatures that they had been asleep for longer then they had all intended but more importantly was the fact that they would get to finally quench their hunger. When Kurama gave them the go they zoomed past her in a large blur of a multitude of colors to the manny exits that had been built in, right wee the old ones had once been. Kurama looked at them all with a hint of glee in her eyes as she felt a wave of satisfaction pass her.

~Unknown Place and Time~

A lone person walked through a street on the less-then perfect part of the city, headphones in her ears and blaring their loud beat loudly in a way that drowned out all and any of the unnerving yet common sounds from nearby gangs.

"From under neath the trees,  
we watch the sky,  
confusing stars  
With satellites,"

The people of the city had apparently given up on this area as a whole, marking it as unfixable and a waste of time. No one bothered to write a missing report here or press charges on others in a legal manner, no one ever helped anyway. The girl turned up the volume up even higher then it had already been moments before hand if that were at all possible, to try to drown out the unpleasant thoughts of what had been happening, what she would need to do now to survive in this world, and where to go from there.

"I never dreamed,  
That you'd be mine  
But here we are,  
We're here tonight  
Singing amen  
I am alive,  
Am alive  
Singing amen  
I am alive"

She had lived with her older sister who had lived off of a life of prostitution to support them both but...sometimes life is a little bit messy. Sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes people _die_.  
The lone girl never noticed that she was no longer alone in the alley she had decided to use as a shortcut, a humanoids shadow followed her with unneeded stealth.

"If everyone cared  
And no body cried,  
If everyone lived,  
And nobody lied,  
If everyone shared,  
And swallowed their pride  
Then we'd see the day...  
When nobody died  
And I'm singing  
Amen I  
Amen I  
I am alive  
Amen I  
Amen I  
I am alive"

The shadowed figure watched with barely controlled excitement as the ignorant girl walked herself deeper into the alley to what he had dubbed a dead end, she had been so out of focus that she had taken a wrong turn without yet noticing the difference in street. The shadowy figure walked past a dimly lit light that aluminates his being for a mere moment before its light flared brightly as the bulb exploded, the light vanishing, but not before it had the chance to illuminate the figure and show him as a young teen with blonde hair, yellow eyes, and whiskered cheeks. His clothes consisted of an orange sweatshirt and a pair of blue jeans, a black chocker around his neck that almost resembled a thin collar if not for the multiple, circular tags. The hidden blonde licked his lips slightly in anticipation as he followed the girl, his patience thinning and speed rising until he was right behind the unaware victim. She stopped suddenly, her stalker immediately stopping before he would have bumped into her, and she looked around as she finally noticed the dead end.

"Huh?" She asked herself before groaning, clearly annoyed, and spun a round quickly and walked right into the person from behind her. "Oh! Sorry!" She said as she took out the orange and black earpiece to hear his reply. She never got one, instead she heard a slight growling noise that quickly rose in volume. She took a timid step back from the shorter person, shocked, and she tried to look at his face. His bangs covered half of his face, leaving a single, glowing eye exposed to the dim light. His expression was almost blank if not for the ever growing grin on his face, soon becoming inhumanly wide in a terrifying smile, exposing the sharp blades that were his teeth. The girl was about to walk around him when he finally struck, blighting out her windpipe and silencing her screams. She fell to the ground the instant the wind pipe gave way to his pulling, her lungs being yanked up with it, and watched as the boy's horrifying smile turned to a genuine one for a few moments. It was a small smile but the blood that covered his face, her blood, ruined the beauty of the grin. She failed away quickly after that and, as her eyes closed, heard one final thing being said by her attacker.

"Thank you"

Naruto watched as the lights faded from her eyes and slide shut, never to be reopened, before he let his hunger take over and rip through her insides. He didn't care if his clothes would never be usable again, all that mattered was the feast before him and the metallic taste that sat on his tongue. He didn't, care about neatness, he didn't, take the time to remove the skin, he ripped through the meat and skin along with the cloths as he didn't bother to remove them. After he got his fill he decided to take the time to make her look decent again, that was the least he could do since she was killed outside the comfort of a home. He moved her destroyed limbs back into place and did her hair a bit to make it look nicer but did nothing to remove the blood. As he began to walk away to find his next meal he paused, hearing the faint beat of the earpieces. He walked back and picked them up by the long wire, drawing a small device that was filled with different songs and pocketed it before walking away. 

~With Edward~

Edward had different ways to kill, he may be a killer and took no regrets in making the action but he still held mercy for his victims. He always made it painless for them, only ever letting them know that they would be dying if it was for a job or if it was personal. His method was similar to someone that had tried to kill him named Scar. He made slight changes to the brain from afar that would kill his victim instantly and before they would even realize their death. This wasn't the fun way to do it, but it was the least the innocent deserve for being his meal. However, this was not like those times; simply being near a human at the moment without feasting was a struggle. He decided to go to the prison to eat first before going out to fill himself. He walked silently through the halls of the prison, walking straight past the guards as they had been unable to see him with his cloak of darkness. He let the halls turn black and loose all color, anyone who walked in the inky black darkness would be unable to see him. He continued walking until he found the large circle of cells that had his meals. He tried to push the door That led to the circlet room but found it a lot stronger then he had thought. He clapped his hand and felt the energy rush through him and into the door, retransmitting it into a slightly different door that was openable from the outside and locked in the inside. He pushed it open and walked into the room with a smirk growing on his face. He spread the shadows from the halls to the smaller room that accessed the multiple cell doors until every deface was pitch black.

"Waky waky everybody" Edward said in a tone that sounded like a mock version of one normally used on a young child. There were angry groans of protest as the sleepy handful of people tried to ignore the noise. Edward, still smirking, clapped his hands again and the cage doors all swung open loudly and slam on the surrounding walls. None of them were asleep after that. "Don't you guys want a chance of freedom?" He asked in a slightly more serious tone, by now most of the people had come to the doors and were staring at him in shock. Edward took his time in looking every single one of them directly on the eye before he continued "If you beat me, then you get to live and leave this room. If you dont' beat me then you will die either way; did you know that right past that second door is the shocking chair?" He ended sarcastically with false bewilderment "now come on, I am inpatient. Co e at me al at once or all together but once you come at me then there's no going back." He looked them all over one more time before smirking again and releasing the genjutsu that made him look normal. The room's other occupants took the sudden poof of smoke as the go to attack and waisted no time in charging at the stranger. Edward replied by zooming around them and slamming his foot heal first into the largest person there. He fell to the ground, having been pushed over. As he had been just about to stand-the rest of the people staring at the spot the blonde had just been in confusion-someone had jumped onto his back, slamming him back to the unforgiving stone floor. This time Edward dint, wait and instantly slammed his foot on the large mans' head, the skull shattered with a sickening, wet crunching noise, he was killed instantly. Edward felt an insane grin stretch his face before he felt his skin tearing slightly to make way for a larger bite. This was painful, but bearable. Before he had the chance to eat he was punched in the check by another person, this one having a slight build ad pale skin. Edward, surprised at the sudden attack, was flung awkward sand onto the wall that had rested right behind him. The moment his back hit the cement wall another person slammed his elbow into his throats to keep him in place. Edward looked up at him for a few seconds before his grin returned. The fun had finally started 

~With Nightingale~

Nitingale had a slightly pleasant grin on her face as she looked at the person next to her, her eyes were calm and grin unwavering. She moved to the side in a fluent motion, dropping the person to the floor after she slid her hand out from his stomach and watched he show unfold. First, the venom she put into him would make his nerves twice as sensitive, second, she watched him writhe on the floor as his pain tolerance lessened and the relatively small wound became the most painful experience of his life, third-  
The sound of ripping flesh and pain filled screeches filled the air as the man's insides splashed the ground and drench the two other people in the room.

'Watch the fireworks bloom to life.' Nightingale finished to herself, her smile never changing but a look of glee in her eyes as she enjoyed her sadistic game. She turned to the remaining person, whom had been lifted from the ground by her neck with Nightingale's lone, powerful tail. "Are you ready?" She asked calmly with that same smile, the other person couldn't reply as she tried to loosen the tails grip to bring air into her burning lungs. Nightingale took her silent pleads as initiative to go ahead and she lifted her up higher, Nightingales' trusty summon-Yang-looked at her with glowing eyes. Then, to her horror, Nightingale began to slowly squeeze harder, enjoying every sound her victim made. Finally, her one pile collapsed and her neck snapped, leaving Nightingale to her meal.

~With Ditzy~

Ditzy sat at a large table as she blew a few more bubbles with a strange liquid. She watched childishly as the bubbles floored above her head where they remained as she carefully twitched her wings to keep them afloat. When she felt that there were enough, she pushed the air away from her, careful to not touch a single bubble, and watched them fall to the people below. Below her was the court room where some miner crime had been being judged for the last hour. Ditzy watched as bubble by bubble fell slowly down and waited for them to be noticed. It was a high room, it having been a church at some point before the religion being abandoned. She decided to look at the odd liquid again and took in its odd yellow tint. This tint became much more when it forms a bubble and becomes gas that hid on the inside of the bubble. She watched with her crossed yellow eyes as someone noticed the odd sight of the bubbles but stayed silent for a matter of minutes before telling anyone else. By the time anyone else had noticed them, however, it was too late. The bubble's outer level became blue and landed on one of the lawyer's heads, his bald head had no defense against the acid outside. He screamed suddenly as his skin instantly began to insinuate but soon started laugh with subs between every cackle. He was not the only victim of this, various other members of the mass began screaming in pain and horror before the yellow laughing gas took its effect. Ditzy watched the show with interest and giggled as the surprisingly small court al soon fell victim to one of her games.

"I should've brought some popcorn!" She exclaimed loudly to herself, her voice easily drowned out by the screams 'oh well' she thought 'I guess I'll just have to make due' she grinned wider before leaping down and taking her meal, various other bubbles of multiple different shades and sizes following her.


	19. Chapter 19

Clean Up and Grooming

/A:N/ That picture took me a bit over 20 hours to make T-T...either that or twenty minutes...it's been a slow weekend. This choppy is important, funny, but not too graphic. You'll understand later on in the chapter what I mean *la evil laugh*

" **Demon talking, Kurama or anyone in an animal form.** "  
"Any other language"  
"~Cuing/sweet talking/seducing~"

-With Edward

Edward sighed as he patted his stomach happily, though no bump could be seen with how fast his breed digested, and he stood from his spot on the ground near his meal and began to walk away from the prison. No one would discover the carnage he had left until later, anyway. A small ping of guilt made him pause as he looked at his mess and decided it to be far too cruel to whomever would find it to leave it all this traumatizingly a mess. He clapped his hands, a familiar ringing sound echoing throughout the room, and placed his hands onto the ground to force the large mess into each individual cell before closing each cell door and fixing the room up to make it as though he had never been there in the first place. With this done, he spun around, his braid flying behind him, and walked out of the room.

-With Naruto

Naruto placed the leftovers inside of the sealed container and stood above his most recent victim. The man almost looked like a dissected frog but with much more precision. He carefully removed all of the meat from the victim's flesh before finishing and licking off as much of the red liquid as he could from his clawed hands and arms. He moved to the apartment"s bathroom to wash off the liquid before it clotted before grinning Emily at the thought of his next kill, though stealth never did cross his mind as it had in every single one of his previous killings. No, he wanted to test his strength. His eyes flashed red and glowed in the dark before returning to their yellow hue, wait, yellow? Naruto noticed his own eyes in the mirror's reflection for confirmation and yes, they were yellow. Golden eyes stared back at him through the mirror's surface with a slight slit in his pupil. However, unlike the normal flashes of red that occurred from time to time, they never reverted back and weren't entirely slitted, nor did they glow too noticeably. After about ten minutes of staring at himself in the mirror, Naruto decided to resume his activities and finish up what he had left.

"The hunt IS almost over after all" he reminds himself as he felt an eternal clock tick slightly as it neared its final minutes. It was time to either clean up or go for the next kill.

-Ditzy's POV

I smiled as my beautiful creations silenced the last of the loud noises that were the remaining screams of fear from the mass of humans that had previously surrounded me, though I have been told that this face was more horrifying or creepy than my usual one. I suddenly frowned when I felt the shared internal clock tick down to some of the smaller digits. I groaned in displeasure at the realization but smiled anyway before wiping the delicious liquid off of my face, I felt it smudge on my cheek despite my efforts, whatever. I look at the beautiful mess that surrounded me, I didn't want to just leave such a delicious treat out to rot inside a building where it would go unappreciated.

"Can't let that happen, nope, nope!" I practically yelled excitedly as I touched my palms together and formed a circle-like space between my fingers through my joined thumbs and pointer fingers, a small barrier appearing in between my fingers. This one looked clear, almost transparent, and I blew at the surface to make the liquid turn into my beautiful bubbles.  
I flapped my wings carefully and angled them to push air into various directions, the many bubbles floating towards the many ruined corpses. The bubbles floated gracefully above the masses before touching what layer below and clinging towards it with a beauty that only I ever seemed to notice, my crossed eyes making it look even more interesting as I let my lazy eye swivel in my skull, completely messing up my eyesight. I grew dizzy and closed my eyes tight until the feeling paused. When my eyes opened once more, the mess had entirely disappeared into nothingness, until I looked up. That was where my many bubbles floated, various limbs and pools of blood filling them for later use. I grinned again and stomped on the ground as strong as I could, making a strong flap of my wings as I did so.

*POP* the noise came loudly and from most every direction as every single bubble exploded, along with the many meals inside, and showering me with a spray of bloody rain. I spread my arms wide and swirled in a few circles as the blood entire being. Now satisfied, I felt my eyes flow as I summoned a passageway back to the Burrow.

-With Nightingale

Nightingale crunched loudly on the bone happily as she finished the last of her meal. She licked eating the marrow on the inside of the bone, thinking that it was quite tasty after all. She finished the last of the remaining victim by cleaning a bone and then biting into it to expose the inner marrow and slipping her tongue inside to get as much of it as possible. She was covered in blood, her clothing appearing to be a lost cause, though she did know better then that, it was nothing a good cleaning couldn't fix. A small ticking at the back of her mind stopped suddenly and an alarm rang mere moments afterwards. A warm energy licked at the inside of her mind with an eagerness to be used, telling her that her time had run out. She groaned slightly in disappointment before allowing the energy to flush out of her in a flash. It opened up behind her with ease, becoming an orange swirl she of energy. The majority of the newer generation had no idea how to slip through the majority of the dimensions, especially dimensions like the Burrow. Those sorts of dimensions were designed differently, being embedded inside of the spirit of the Kyuubi no Kitsune yet at the same time said being resided inside. Their home broke the laws of physics, the laws of nature, and the laws of space and time. Nightingale felt the energy swirl again and this time coated her being before everything went white.

-Edward

Edward looked at himself through his bathroom mirror, the one inside of his separate room in the den, and groaned. He had transmuted all of the blood away from him yet he still felt dirty, as if it were just beneath his clothing. Before he could contemplate this further, a knock suddenly sounded on one of the doors.

"Edo-ni? Open up!" Ditsy's voice rang happily through the wood. Edward's head could be seen poking through the halfway opened bathroom door as he made his way through his home. He opened his door calmly and was dog piled by his entire sub-pack, though this was a normal occurrence with this group, especially when the mood was like it currently was.

"Suffocating, not breathing." Edward's voice wheezed from the bottom of the pile. The three others got off of him one by one before Nightingale continued to what she had wanted to say

"Guess what we've got~" she said in a sing song tone

"Hm? Whatcha got?" He asked, she lifted up a small handful of coupons

"We're going to the bathhouse!" Naruto declared excitedly while shouting his arms out to emphasize, Ditsy spun in a circle happily, her bloodied hair flying behind her. Edward looked at them oddly

"I thought that the bath house wasn't open?" He almost asked, clearly confused

"Yep!" Nightingale chirped, slightly amused at the boy's confusion "our's is under reconstruction, not to mention that they need a new hot spring, but I'm talking about a different one." She wiggled her eyebrows slightly, Edward furrowed his in thought before realizing what she meant, a feeling of excitement and embarrassment filing his gut in realization.

-One Hour Later  
Edward wasn't sure if he should be happy or not about his half-sister's idea, but here he was. Edward sat in some large wooden bucket-like contraption, entirely nude. His blush was obvious as he tried to hide his face in embarrassment, his knees pulled in to cover himself. Nightingale had gotten tickets-though they were more like passports-to the summoning slug dimension. Once there, the group had made their way to one of the many bathing buildings it had. The reason they had come to a summoning dimension in the first place was due to the fact that most summoning areas had a unique form of a bathhouse, one that was designed to assist any form of summon with any sort of pain, ache, illness, or filth. In all honesty theses places were more like some weird mix of a spa and hospital. The Burrow had once had one of these before Kurama had been captured and sealed away, their new one had been put into construction and would be done after about a month or so. Edward was disturbed from his musings when a woman wearing something akin to a nurse getup came into his room with a few towels in hand, Edward,s blush doubled and he tried to cover as much of himself as possible-which he was affective in doing so with his wings which were now covering most of his person. The woman must have seen this as she had begun to giggle at this action.

"Don't worry, it's nothing I haven't seen already." She said as she worked on getting the water ready. She opened something in the wall, water suddenly flooding into the bath as she messed with something Edward couldn't see.

"Eek!" Edward squeaked at the suddenly hot water. His ears pressed on the back of his head as he blushed again 'Ugh, this is so embarrassing!' Edward thought before he suddenly felt someone softly stroking his hair and ears. His body relaxed involuntarily and his wings slowly went limp at his side. The hot water felt cooler now, though that was only due to the fact that he had adjusted to the heat. The worst thing about this place, in Edward's opinion, was how well the workers could play their presser points like a well tuned instrument. A stroke in a certain way to an ear, tail, or even a wing could relax certain breeds instantly. It was humiliating how they could easily do this to him, complete and utter strangers knowing his body language and everything without even having to know his name. The water had filled to his chest by the time he had realized that he had started to purr, an involuntary function but still the universal symbol for enjoyment. He forced himself to stop but was now holding his breath and had turned slightly blue, which was the opposite color as the water at this point in time. It had turned a slight murky red from the dried blood that had clung to his demonic features.

"Wow, you're rather dirty" the nurse mused as she began to scrub his tail lightly to get rid of the red substance. "You must have gone out hunting recently, most cubs like you never realize it but all of the filth from whenever you're in your other form, any of them, doesn't just go away; it sticks to you until it's cleaned." She continued as she emptied the water and refilled it.

"Little?!" Edward cried in slight agitation, she chuckled and continued to his wings and then to his hair, ignoring his sudden outburst. When she moved to clean his body Edward swiped the soap, there was no way she was doing his nude body. She left soon enough, returning with a towel, and began to calmly dry and groom his wings before leaving for the last time. Edward dried himself and then left to find his clothes, towel still around his waist. He then got a better idea and shifted into his other form and stretched himself, towel dropping to the ground.

" **Much better** " he said in barks and bird-like squeaks (this is basically the noise a fox makes) he shook off all of the extra liquid from his fur and grabbed the towel in his teeth 'might as well put this away' he thought as he walked through the halls to the front desk to deposit the towel.

"~Awww, why thank you little guy~" the large man at the front desk cued sweetly as he took the towel from Edward's teeth. Edward's retort of growls and chirps didn't help his case as the man patted his head and gave him a treat. Edward took the treat, it was rather tasty after all, but he was still slightly peeved off at being called little again. He walked back to the waiting room and sat down, still knowing at the treat in his mouth. It was a slight combination of sweet and savory and an unidentifiable flavor, it gave him something to think about since he knew that he would be here for a long, long looooooong time. He still wasn't quite used to the whole "bathing in front of others" deal, having been grown up to such morals. His siblings, however, did not have that particular boundary and were mostly fine with being completely nude, and wouldn't stop using that to their advantage whenever they had a prank way...along with switching the water in his shower to milk, but he always got back at them for it. He let out a small snicker as he thought up some more devious plans for their next prank war. 

-With the rest of the gang

Naruto flung his arms out above him, getting hot water to fly up with them, as he let out an exaggerated yet happy sigh, faking ignorance to his sister's displeasure as the hot liquid splashed them.

"Dang it Naru, will you cut it out?!" Nightingale cried out as her enjoyment turned to be less, well, enjoyable. Naruto gave a small whine

"But Onnechan, it's fun!" Naruto cried out as all of my readers cried out on displeasure at my lack of knowledge for Japanese language, and my fourth wall breaking. Ditsy groaned in annoyance at her older brother's antics

"It's only fun when it's to someone other than any of us" Nightingale corrected as if stating a fact, Naruto waved her off

"Yeah yeah" he said calmly before suddenly becoming serious "So, what now?" He asked. Nightingale followed quickly with his train of thought, but didn't respond

"Yeah Nighty, there has to be a reason for bringing us all out here." Ditsy continued as she knew her oldest sibling wouldn't just do this for no reason, especially after they had all made a private agreement to be a little bit more attentive to Ed's feelings for bathhouses, though that said nothing for nudity in general.

"Clever, clever" Nightingale said in a tone, as if she were rewording them for something "yes there is another reason why we're here" she paused suddenly, as if thinking, "but I don't feel like explaining it twice, go get Ed please."

"Oh! Oh! Ohohohoh oh!" Naruto all but yelled with his hand raised in the air, similarly to a student in class would. Nightingale made a show of whom she would choose, but eventually picked Naruto as he was the only one who wanted to do the task. As he fit out he shifted into his other form, and shook off all of the water before dashing out of the room's closed door like a cheetah while giggling like a hyena.

""Naruto!"" Twin feminine voices shouted as they were once again splashed by the droplets of burning fluid.

-Waiting Room

Edward sat on a chair in his more animalistic form reading some book he had found at the speed of light when someone in the same speed smashed into him, sending both of them to the ground. The noise of yips and barks could be heard as the two attempted to untangle themselves from the other, yet their work only seemed to make them more trapped. The large man from the front desk lifted the two up with strength akin to Tsunade herself as the two, while still rather young, were around the size of a large fox each and that wasn't counting their tails and wings, though their honeycomb bones did make them lighter. He set them both down once they were untangled, only for Naruto to tackle his slightly older sibling once more. This time, however, he attempted to grab onto the other's nape and drag him off, which he was rather successful in doing. Edward was curious in what his brother was doing and let it happen as he was dragged off, though that didn't mean he didn't protest from time to time.

" **What are you doing?!** " He asked finally " **where are we going?** " He continued. Naruto made a response but it was severely muff,ed by Edward's mane.

" **Rewax Eg, we r goirin tla private balf.** " He managed through the hair. When the two made it to a shut door Naruto finally released his hold on Edward's nape, not realizing that he hadn't been holding it currently and that Ed could have easily broken free if he had wanted to. Naruto shifted forms again and walked into the apparently empty room.

"CANNON BALL!" Ditsy's voice rang as the two hiding females suddenly jumped into the hot water, nearly drenching Naruto. There were many cries of hot from the inside off the room and hyena-like laughter from Edward, who was still just outside of the splash zone. Edward basically hopped into the other room and sat on the dryer area of the ground, above water level.

" **So, why am I here?** " Ed asked eventually as he looked away from the people in the room as a corner of the sealing appeared to be of high interest

"Not saying until you shift out of that form." Nightingale said calmly as she tried to hide he smirk "It's just us lil bro" she added. Edward's eyes slighted and he stood up suddenly

"DAMN IT, I'M NOT SMALL!" Edward cried. Nightingale patted his head apologetically

"I know, I'm sorry, but you' just too cute not to mess with." She said. Ed huffed but shifted into his in between form, the one they had all been born into. One of his tails curled around himself as he sat in the water, slowly so as to not burn himself. "Alright, now as you all know the Burrow is under construction."

"Yep" Ditsy cut in

"Uhu" Naruto added

"We know" Edward finished before they let her continue

"And they are re-activating the learning system." The others had not known this

"Where's this going?" Edward asked

"First of all, Kurama wants you to help with the reconstruction before first and foremost." She was talking to Edward "I myself will be training in the art of seduction as well as medicine and poisons, as well as the same basic training the people here take." She pointed at Naruto "you need to help with the re-sealing and unsealing, there are a lot of places that have some good land that are sealed off and are going to waste. Especially from the Uzumaki and extended Uzu clans. Oh, and Ed" Edward looked at her again before looking away to his corner "You are to help in the reconstruction of the ancient Xerxian land, you know, restore it to its former glory. Oh! And all of us can take whatever corset we want!" She finished with an excited shout

"Hell ya! I'm learning alchehistry!" Edward yelled in excitement

"I don't think that we have any alchehistry masters in the Burrow, you'll need to find an outsider to teach you." Nightingale said calmly, Edward pouted for a good ten seconds before popping up again

"Wait a minute, I think I know someone who knows it!" Edward exclaimed as he thought of someone he had once encountered, a boy around his age from the birthplace of the science of the name of Ling. "Also-" he paused and grinned at Naruto "-teach me sealing!" He yelled, almost pleading

"Ok! Ok!" Naruto responded, Edward gave a triumphant sound of excitement

"I need to learn how to slip through dimensions, that should be my top priority." Ditsy said, determination in her crossed golden eyes. She turned to Edward

"Teach me please?" She asked, Edward gave a closed eye smile and nodded

"Oh, two more things" Nightingale said suddenly, they all looked at her "there's reconstruction being taken on our rooms so we need to find somewhere else to go for the night."

"This might be a good chance to look into finding an old pal of mine, we can stay the night there." Edward said calmly 

-Maes Hughes

Hughes sat alone on his living room couch with a blanket wrapped around his form. His daughter was at school and his wife was helping some friend move. He himself had a small cold, though that itself wouldn't stop him from working on something productive.

'He has to be out there somewhere.' He mused to himself as he looked over some more papers he had gotten from Havoc. A sudden knock on his door brought him out of his thoughts "Who could that be?" He wondered aloud. He made his way to the door and opened it wide. "Is there something as can do for y-" all thought seized in Maes' mind, all words stopping, the moment Hughes had opened the door wide enough to see whom was on the other side he stopped instantly in all function. His eyes widened to their full extent as he processed just who was on the other side of the door. On Hugh's table was an old newspaper, on that newspaper was a string of words proven to be untrue.

Edward Elric Is Dead


	20. Chapter 20

Hughes Wakes Up

/A:N/ It's my birthday bitches! I'm now 15 fuckin' years old! ? (as of June 17...I had to update this note...) 

Edward stood in front of his old friend's door and quickly grew impatient with the other man, it had begun to rain.

"Sooooooo" Edward began awkwardly as he moved slightly closer to the door to try to stay dry "are we all just going to stare at each other or are you going to invite us in?" Edward gave a slightly sympathetic smile, Hughes backed away from the door and made a motion in his hands to welcome the assumed dead in before closing it, unaware that he had closed it in another's face

"Hey!" Naruto's voice whined from outside of the house, he rubbed his nose as he had walked into the door.

"I got it!" Edward's voice rang as he opened the door for the others, Hughes just continued to stare dumbfounded into where ever Edward moved, his movements being too smooth and breathless, as if no effort was used in the movement.

"Is he ok?" Ditsy asked as she waved her hand in front of the still man.

"I...I'm not sure" Edward said with a hint of worry in his voice

"Way to go Ed, you broke him." Naruto joked slightly as he nudged Edward's arm with his elbow, Edward elbowed lightly back. Naruto pretended to be hurt and fell to the ground

"Oh the pain! Why Ed, why?!" He cried dramatically, Nightingale burst out laughing at the dramatics while Edward and Ditsy withheld their snickers and giggles. Naruto's lips twitched slightly in a smile as he saw that he had managed to break the worsening mood that had circled his elder brother, he stood up.

"Anyways, we should probably get Hughes-san somewhere to sit before he falls down." It wasn't two seconds after Naruto spoke those words that Hughes' knees gave way.

"To the couch?" Edward asked, his hand on Hughes' shoulder to help keep him up, his touch gentle yet strong. Maes nodded absently "to the couch it is" Edward and Naruto both hooked an arm on either of the grown man's own. They hoisted him up and led him to the couch. The group of supposed young teens talked, drew, watched the old television, and anything else to entertain themselves until their host would stir awake.

"I'm bored!" Naruto complained.

"Join the club" Nightingale threw in

"Join it? I freaking RUN it!" He complained, emphasizing on the word run. Hughes finally stirred from his restless sleep. Edward shushed them quickly, Naruto and Nightingale looking sheepish at the noise they had been making.

""Sooooorrrrryyyyyyy"" they whispered, Edward gave them a smile of appreciation before returning to his friend

-Maes POV

I awoke from my sleep on the couch, wait, when had I gone to sleep? I had an odd dream during my sleep, probably made by my stress and hope with a dash of a miner cold to add in a bit more of an unrealistic possibility. Alphonse had told us all of what had happened, a fight with a group of people whom claimed to be Humuncli. He had explained to us, my squad and Mustaing's squad, about why we could never find the body; the space where the brothers plus had been fighting in had caved in on itself mid battle and Al had been unable to save Edward. I didn't want to doubt Alphonse's word but the explanation seemed off, as if it had been fabricated like a poorly designed quilt. My dream had been about Edward, he had been alive and had come knocking at my door. I think he had brought a few people but the dream had faded to black too soon for me to tell. It was then that I it, I wasn't alone. There where whispers and mutters about me, very hushed whispers. I could feel from the position of the couch that someone else was sitting next to me. I opened my eyes quickly and took in my visitors, my eyes eventually landing on one Edward Elric.

"Don't pass out!" Edward suddenly yelled, throwing his arms up in alarm and waving them wildly as if he were an energetic child.

"Why would I?-" I began, trying to take in what I was seeing but failing to do so. Had my dream been real? A blonde haired boy just barely shorter then Edward jumped up with a determined look and started shaking me wildly

"Naru! Quit it!" I heard Edward yell, though my brain seemed to have trouble processing the words due to the situation.

-No One's POV

"I'm not waiting any longer for dinner" Naruto explained childishly, sticking his tongue out and flicking it to taste the air, a trait that had never left him from his more mortal days. "Wake up Hues!" Naruto practically yelled in the grown man's ear

"It's Hughes Naru, Hughes." Edward corrected. Out of all of the mortals he had become comfortable with, this one was one of his favorites. The man was silly and caring as well as useful whenever Edward had needed any information when the boy was a tad younger though he hadn't aged since then other then his hair growing longer.

"Whatever his name is, it's time to WAKE UP!" Naruto said while making a small lunge for the man as he had stepped back. Edward tackled Naru and the two ended up wrestling like the kits they were, eventually though Hughes arose himself enough to watch the show with a look of confusion plain on his face

"This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder..." he stated to himself

"Don't worry, it gets worse." Nightingale said, leaning on the wall with her arms crossed over her bosom. Ditsy decided to join in the fight and making it a three way miniature battle, all of them turning into their younger animal form as they continued until Nightingale lifted up two of the pups, grabbing the last one with her tail and dropping Edward in Hughes lap while holding the other energetic in her lap, stroking their fur in an attempt to calm them both down. Edward turned his small snout towards Hughes and looked into the other's eyes, the familiar gold forcing Hughes into the reality of who exactly this was.

"There's a story behind this, isn't there?" Hughes asked, beginning to stroke the soft fur of Edward's back and between the wings.

"Of course there is" Nightingale said as she stroke Ditsy's light gold locks, causing a mewled purr from the small creature. Edward's three tails wound themselves around Hughes' hand and arm, Hughes looked on in another confused glance

"Care to enlighten me?" Hughes asked as he eyed the tails that wound around his arm as if they were vines.

"No" Nightingale said simply "You wouldn't believe me if I told you so why should I bother?" She continued simply. Naruto gave a sudden whine in his small form and jumped up on his hind legs, attempting to balance himself by placing his paws on the area just below Nightingale's collar bone

" **Sis! I'm hungry!** " Naruto whined without opening his mouth, using his muzzle to instead make a whining noise along with various yips. Edward's stomach grumbled from his spot on Hughes' lap at the mention of food, a full grown normal demon could live years without food but he had forgotten breakfast and it was now nearing dinner time. Edward's tails retreated back from Maes' arm and he looked up in search of the green eyes to puppy-dog-beg stare into.

"You're hungry too, huh?" Maes asked gently, Edward yipped in response before being set down onto the ground where he shifted into his half human form, wings tucked neatly behind him and tails swishing above the ground. As Edward followed Hughes into the kitchen he was suddenly grabbed in a large hug by the grown man. Edward stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do, but felt Hughes caress his hair as the man began to cry "We...I thought you were dead" he said between his crying. Edward's hands were captured into the hug and trapped but felt the need to comfort the other, he spread his wings and awkwardly hugged Hughes with them, wrapping them around the pair and cocooning them both. Edward felt lost in the situation as he had no idea how to comfort the much older and larger male. Sticking to his instincts he hugged back as best he could and tried to put his chin on Hughes' shoulder. This was difficult as the other person was much larger then himself and was hugging him by bending over, it wasn't that Hughes was abnormally large for his age but because Edward appeared as if he were a mere fifteen and the fact that he had slipped on air when the hug first transpired he was currently much shorter then he would have been able to normally reach, he would easily fall over the moment Hughes would stand so Edward used his three semi long tails to support him from the ground. It would be a long time before the crying would stop but for now Edward let the other man wet his shirt and hold him close.


End file.
